What would anyone recommend to someone who really only had high school math[0] to get up to speed on enough math to handle more advanced computer science concepts?
I’m really interested but all the material I can find is either for kids (which just isn’t sufficiently stimulating for an adult) or aimed at college kids with a decent background in math that is fresh
[0]: not even calculus just what they called technical math which is like all practical example based curriculum. One of my life regrets here to be honest
I have two books that might be a good fit for you since they are specially written for adult learners in mind. (disclaimer: I wrote these books and I have a financial interest in promoting them)
The No Bullshit Guide to Math & Physics [1] is a condensed review of high school math, followed by mechanics (PHYS 101) and calculus (CALC I and II). It's not as rigorous as other more proof-oriented textbooks, but it still covers all the material.
The No Bullshit Guide to Linear Algebra [2] is all about linear algebra and also includes three chapters on applications, so you'll learn the fundamental ideas but also what they are used for IRL.
Both books come with exercises and problem sets with answers, which is essential for learning. In fact one could say all math learning happens when you try to solve problems on your own, not just reading.
Ah I had a vague recollection of your work, I think I read a pirated multi scanned janky pdf once - but I couldn’t remember who it was written by, just had ‘Russian’ stuck in my head and Ivan triggered it!
I’ll buy your book now I’m a man of means and ready to learn properly.
Yeah the Russian pirated books site (libgen.li right now) has a version, but it's outdated.
I recommend getting the print version because it's easy to read (and flip back and forth with page references). We have a free-eBook-copy-when-you-buy-print policy—just get in touch with me by email and I'll send you the PDF with matching page numbers.
If you want to get into "rigorous" mathematics, I'd probably go a path similar to the one I'll outline here, but YMMV.
You may want to pick a book on writing proofs to familiarize yourself with the concepts first, such as "How to prove it" (either the one by Velleman or Polya). Another good one for getting to some intuitions might be "How to solve it" by Polya.
Then, you might pick up any elementary book on Real Analysis, Linear Algebra, as well as Graph theory/some Algorithms. Most of these should be self-contained. These 3 areas should lay a very firm mathematical foundation, and other parts of mathematics will become a lot more accessible with them.
Just be mindful that you'll probably need a long time going through these books, and that's normal. If you gloss over things, you'll quickly miss important bits. It's not like other books where you can kinda grok things out of context if you just continue reading, at least for me. I wouldn't do more than max 2h per day, but be consistent if you want to see progress.
The Art of Problem Solving books are great if you want to relearn pre-college math at a deeper and more advanced level so that your foundation is all the stronger for university level math.
In theory, any introduction to discrete mathematics would do. In practice, there are many differences in depth and breath of the material. You probably will do well if you choose Rosen, but there are several great alternatives, such as Levin[0] that you can start right away with.
I’m really interested but all the material I can find is either for kids (which just isn’t sufficiently stimulating for an adult) or aimed at college kids with a decent background in math that is fresh
[0]: not even calculus just what they called technical math which is like all practical example based curriculum. One of my life regrets here to be honest