Even if you struggled through math and slept through science, there’s hope

I'm currently reading a fascinating book entitled A Mind for Numbers: How to excel at math and science (even if you flunked algebra) by Barbara Oakley.  

The author's personal story makes interesting reading. Growing up, she was hopeless with anything to do with numbers or technology. For example, she hated math and science and flunked all of her courses until she was able to drop them. She couldn't even read a clock face or turn on the television. After high school, the author enlisted in the army and picked up the Russian language, and then was unaccountably commissioned as a second lieutenant in the US Army Signal Corps when she was expected to be expert in radio, cable, and telephone switching systems. 

"I was made to enroll in mathematically oriented electronics training (I finished at the bottom of the class), and then off I went to West Germany, where I became a pitiable communications platoon leader....I reflected on the progress of my career and realized that I'd followed my inner passions without also being open to developing new ones. As a consequence, I'd inadvertently pigeonholed myself. If I stayed in the army, my poor technical know-how would always leave me a second-class citizen. On the other hand, if I left the service, what could I do with a degree in Slavic languages and literature? There aren't a lot of jobs for Russian linguists...."

So the author decided to retrain her brain and master math and science. After terrible struggles, she finally figured out how to learn math and science, and then the way became smoother and eventually quite enjoyable. Ultimately, she earned a BA in electrical engineering, a master's in electrical and computer engingeering, and a doctorate in systems engineering (including thermodynamics, electromagnetics, acoustics, and physical chemistry).

In this book, Dr. Oakley lets the reader in on how she changed her brain and what she learned about its inner workings. In subsequent postings, I plan to pass on to you some of her practical techniques that help people learn more deeply and effectively in limited time frames. 

Comments