I finally hit 1,000 days of doing math daily!
Early on in my journey I was a lot more aggressive with my XP targets, but settled into a low-volume rhythm as my goals evolved.
I worked from MF1 (Math Foundations 1, lowest level) into MF3, then about halfway through MF3 I started M4ML (Mathematics for Machine Learning).
Self-induced friction
But it got really hard and my progress started to slow as lessons took longer, which was problematic because I was trying to limit my math time to <20m/day.
That may have worked fine, but I really screwed myself by relying on notes/checks early on, which @justinskycak correctly advises not to do.
It started innocently, like I was towards the end of a lesson and short on time, so rather than risk extending it by getting something wrong, I’d check the answer before submitting. I was still doing the work, so no problem, right? Wrong, because the Math Academy system never got feedback on where I was weak. And that compounded over time.
Then there were things in trig like memorizing ratios and formulas. What’s wrong with a quick peek at notes? Same issue, weaknesses get papered over. I was trying to save time since life is busy with kids, work, etc. but the debt accrued.
Math Academy can give you the best learning system ever invented, but if you short-circuit the load-bearing parts you don’t build the prerequisites.
The reset
Suffice to say, I had gaps and it was my own fault. So I reset my progress and started over not too long ago.
I’ve never been strong at math beyond whatever I could naturally do in my head. So, the reset was quite eye-opening at how much progress I made. It’s incredible, there really is no way to describe it. I just…knew stuff I absolutely did not know before and could connect dots in unexpected ways.
And going through things the second time I’m building a deeper level of intuition, quiz scores are higher and it’s quite enjoyable. I have the prerequisites, as Justin would say.
So, is it still worth it after 1,000 days? Unequivocally yes.
Freedom
I feel like it has deeply improved my decision-making, particularly with investing and making financial decisions. And maybe it’s a coincidence, but between now and when I started Math Academy my investments have done exceptionally well, to the extent that I became financially independent in my late 30s.
I still invest and build because I love it, but the freedom to focus on and fund my own projects, help friends, spend a lot of time with the kids, etc. has been life-changing. And just about every day it hits me how fortunate and happy I am. I’m not sure I’d be in this position without Math Academy.
Superpowers
Beyond stronger math foundations, building the discipline to do something intellectually challenging every day has its own benefits, particularly because so many things in life come down to simply managing your own psychology.
It has also made me more ambitious, especially when combined with how much AI has improved. For example, now I’m firmly convinced I can build anything. Never built mobile apps before? No problem, I’ve built multiple in RN and Swift now. Never worked with wearables? No problem, I built a friend a tool on the Meta wearables SDK that lets him hands-free query pubs using voice/photos/video captured with smart glasses while fixing aircraft. And a dozen other tools used regularly by me and others. Overconfidence? Maybe, but it really feels like I can build just about anything now. I feel a lot of that comes from the mental tools sharpened by doing math daily. Combining that with AI gives you superpowers.
My kids
And then there are the benefits for my kids. They are still quite young, but they’ve seen me doing math every day since they were toddlers. And now they are obsessed with math and love solving problems. The downside is they’re addicted to doing it in their heads since they started doing math before they could write, but we’ll handle that 😆
And another benefit is they’ve internalized that they can get better at things, and it’s OK to do hard things and fail. And in fact, if you don’t fail sometimes, you’re not doing hard enough things. They see me struggling with hard problems, and they embrace the struggle as well. That attitude is probably the most valuable thing.
Same journey, different goals
Now, I’m probably in a different boat than most MA users who are pursuing a specific goal, like prepping for SATs, or a college course, or getting ahead/catching up in school, or preparing for a career change. And it’s great for all of that, I highly recommend it. But for me, the goal has evolved.
My original goal was to complete M4ML as quickly as possible because I was interested in “getting into AI” or whatever that meant when I started in 2023 (did any of us really know back then? 😆).
But as a product guy I’ve found I’m more suited to the applied side than research. Grinding large amounts of XP also became less enjoyable because it required too many tradeoffs with kids and other projects. But continuing to work toward finishing M4ML and the other upcoming ML courses is still on my list.
For me I’ve made the daily progress a lifestyle, which I understand is a luxury. I go out to lunch just about every day and do math at a restaurant. It has become my relaxation time to get out of the house and a reward for putting in the time. It’s one of my favorite parts of the day and has replaced less productive things, which I feel good about.
And it all started because I followed @exojason‘s journey building Math Academy for the better part of a decade and decided to give it a shot. Here we are 1,000 days later and it’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. Here’s to the next 1,000 days 🍻
If you want to see my progress, I track it in a little habit tracker I made here.
Now, off to lunch to make it 1,001 🫡
UPDATE: I made Mathy, a free little offline app (iOS and web versions) to give extra drilling practice to supplement learning.
For me it’s more convenient than Anki cards and sessions are quick for free moments on the go with the mobile app. I use it for topics I want more automaticity around to raise my learning ceiling.