How to get good at Exponents and Logs[Math Mondays]
Mathematical Linearity is something that confuses a lot of people.
Hello my amazing reader,
HAPPY 30th of May. Hope you had some funky celebrations, befitting this beautiful day.
It’s probably the 31st for some of you since our timezones are very distributed. Always a thrill to see and hear about how diverse our community is. And I learn a lot. So thank you, for subscribing, and being an amazing community. An extra special thank you to those of you that respond to my surveys/reach out with questions/feedback. Our growth into the best Coding Interview/Software Engineering/Computer Science Education service out there has been a result of your contributions.
To show my love for you, we will be covering a super important concept in Math. That is the concept of Exponents and Logs. These show up all the time, from the standard Leetcode Style time complexities to very complex Deep Learning. Fortunately, you can get good at logs in a relatively short time.
Highlights
This post will cover the following ideas-
Why Logs are important for your interview success and career- They are one of those ideas that show up in a lot of places. Also the techniques you develop integrate very well with General Math, which will carry over well to your journey.
How you can master logs and exponents- Khan Academy and practice. That’s it. This combination will show up a lot in our Math Mondays.
Additional guidance for my AI peeps- If you’re looking to build a career in Machine Learning, Data Science, or Deep Learning then you will need to focus on a few things particularly.
If this sounds like your jam, let’s get right into it.
Why Logs are super cool
I’m sure some of you are not sure why logs will change your lives. After all, many of my subscribers are senior PMs/Software Engineers. And you have gone through your career w/o worrying about logs and exponents.
Here are some of the areas where understanding Logs and Exponents will save you-
Having an understanding of this concept will make you much better at calculating time/space complexity requirements. However, this is the least impactful part of this magic concept.
Logs and Exponents have special properties that allow us to use them in a lot of domains like calculus to optimize large-scale numerical computations. Learning how to do this will be a game-changer for your problem-solving abilities. This is also why they are taught as a prereq to all advanced math classes.
If you want to get into Machine Learning/Data Science you will have to master the log transformation of functions. Not only does this provide the aforementioned optimization benefits, but also helps you turn the raw computations into metrics that are more manageable.
Some of you have/want kids. Imagine the day they grow up and come to you for help on their algebra homework. And aha, that contains logs. Do you really want to shatter their perception of you as a superhero by saying you don’t know? Study logs, for your children, if not for your own career.
How to Get Good at Logs
Now for the million-dollar question? How can you get good at Exponents and Logarithms? The answer is going to be pretty straightforward.
KHAN ACADEMY
That’s it. Go to Khan Academy, and practice their Log problems. They have great lectures and lots of practice problems. They also follow a mastery-heavy data-driven approach to helping you master the basics.
To those of you that want to take this to the next level, check out Brilliant’s questions, or just buy a textbook focused on Logs and Exponents. However, this step will not be needed for most of you.
To those of you that want to get into AI/Data Science, there are a few additional steps for you. As mentioned earlier, the Math behind many concepts in Deep Learning uses the log transformation in some way or another. That is why you will have to master it. Use the guidance, in my article How to learn Machine Learning in 2022 to build your basic knowledge. That will allow you to practice the Log transformations more effectively.
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Happy Prep. I’ll see you at your dream job.
Go kill all you popular pal,
Devansh <3
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