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Book Review: A Mind for Numbers by Barbara Oakley

A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science (Even If You Flunked Algebra)A Mind for Numbers: How to Excel at Math and Science by Barbara Oakley
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Like most readers, I stumbled upon this book after taking Barbara Oakley's Learning How to Learn Course in Coursera.

This book reinforces the concepts taught in that course. The idea of relaxed learning, giving ourselves plenty of time while learning difficult concepts, avoiding procrastination, and tools that help us avoid the procrastination. The idea of repetition for remembering different concepts is presented and stressed well this book.

The importance of sleep for learning stayed with me and changed me when I took the course based on this book. I never discount sleep for important exams or deadlines now.

The crux of learning is expressed well by this quote from Santiago Ramón y Cajal introduced to us in this book


What a wonderful stimulant it would be for the beginner if his instructor, instead of amazing and dismaying him with the sublimity of great past achievements, would reveal instead the origin of each scientific discovery, the series of errors and missteps that preceded it - information that, from a human perspective, is essential to an accurate explanation of discovery.
- Santiago Ramón y Cajal