Susan Rigetti

susanrigetti.com · Personal blog · on HN since 2021

Susan Rigetti writes self-study guides for mathematics, physics, and philosophy, along with personal essays.

What HN saysCommenters repeatedly recommend her math curriculum as a great self-learning resource, and one says they bookmarked her physics guide long ago.
49HN people shared it
40linked it in comments
22stories submitted
827story points
4 months agolast shared
2021people per year2026

Most-shared posts

  1. 1
    So you want to study mathematics
    26 people · 615 points · first shared 2022 · 359 comments on HN
  2. 2
    So You Want to Learn Physics, Second Edition
    25 people · 28 points · first shared 2021 · 3 comments on HN
  3. 3
    So You Want to Study Philosophy
    7 people · 181 points · first shared 2021 · 162 comments on HN
  4. 4
    The Problem of Being Known
    1 people · 2 points · first shared 2025 · discussion on HN
  5. 5
    My Obsessions
    1 people · 1 points · first shared 2025 · discussion on HN

What HN people wrote when they linked it

mtts · 2025-08-14
Depends on what you need, I suppose. This resource is said to be pretty good: https://www.susanrigetti.com/math I decided start with Calculus I on MathAcademy because that was the last thing I did in High School. MathAcademy disagreed and told me to do PreCalculus and even bits of Algebra II first, but I knew better (MathAcademy was right and in hindsight I should’ve just started the Foundation courses to build up my pretty weak algebra skills again). For Calculus I simply use the textbook that’s recommended at the link above. As far as I can tell, it’s good. I don’t do the problems, though - for that I use MathAcademy.
AntoniusBlock · 2025-01-30
This is a great resource for self-learning mathematics: https://www.susanrigetti.com/math
yep31 · 2024-07-25
I'll quote my other comment: If you want to learn math, a good place to start would be AoPS curriculum https://artofproblemsolving.com/store/recommendations Continue with Susan Rigetti's curriculum https://www.susanrigetti.com/math You can get answers to your questions here https://www.reddit.com/r/learnmath/ and here https://math.stackexchange.com/
uncharted9 · 2024-01-31
I have had this on my bookmark for a very long time. I didn't pursue physics as an undergrad but had a few of the books for my physics and chemistry courses. I can definitely recommend this guide. Perhaps I will follow this guide and pursue studying physics just as a hobby someday. So You Want to Learn Physics… - https://www.susanrigetti.com/physics
__rito__ · 2023-05-08
Someone has already mentioned Susan Rigetti's list [0]. I also recommend Mark Saroufim's list [1]. In addition, I will recommend to you "Proof: A Long Form Math Textbook" by Jay Cummings. This is a really nice book which I can recommend highly. Also, look at "A Programmer’s Introduction to Mathematics" by Jeremy Kun [2]. [0]: https://www.susanrigetti.com/math [1]: https://marksaroufim.medium.com/technical-books-i-%EF%B8%8F-4af8f3ddd2… [2]: https://pimbook.org
otras · 2022-10-29
I’d recommend So You Want to Learn Physics… by Susan Rigetti: https://www.susanrigetti.com/physics
gorilla0 · 2022-09-21
Came here to recommend this. I completed my bachelors in mathematics back in 2003. However, recently I am thinking of going back to school to study graduate level mathematics or higher, and possibly do a PhD in a related field. My tentative plan over the next couple of years is as follows 1) Art of Problem Solving - all of the books to review mathematics at middle/high school level 2) Roughly follow the plan mentioned in https://www.susanrigetti.com/math to redo an undergraduate degree 3) Also complete the books here - https://foundations-of-applied-mathematics.github.io/ 4) Move on to more advanced graduate level mathematics
fan_of_yoinked · 2022-09-20
This is great - I don't know if a full survey is in the cards for me, but The Search for Certainty grabbed my eye. This reminds me of this guide https://www.susanrigetti.com/physics for physics, and she has one for self teaching math and philosophy as well. It makes me curious to see a similar reading list put together for computer science - the history and theory of computing, or the kinds of things you might generally study in a Comp Sci program (as opposed to practical skills/how to types of reading)
scott01 · 2022-06-11
Lots of great suggestions here! The original question was probably answered already, but nevertheless I'd like to humbly leave a link to the article “So You Want to Study Mathematics…” by Susan Rigetti [1] — it covers not only linear algebra but other parts of math as well. Quite inspirational, I'd say. [1]: https://www.susanrigetti.com/math
2143 · 2022-05-29
I feel people ask "how to learn math?" every other week. Probably a good thing more people want to learn math. Anyways, I have reasons to believe Susan Rigetti's recommendations [1] are good. [1] https://www.susanrigetti.com/math
racingmars · 2022-05-24
The question reminds me of Susan Rigetti's recommendations for math self-study. If your goal is to self-study the equivalent of a university undergraduate mathematics degree, this is one approach: https://www.susanrigetti.com/math
alltakendamned · 2021-09-28
The "So you want to study philosophy..." guide by Susan Fowler / Rigetti gives a good introduction to self-study of philosophy. It lists both courses (e.g. coursera) and books. But ... if you don't like reading books, maybe philosophy isn't the best subject for you depending how deep you want to go ? There's a LOT of reading you'll be doing. https://www.susanrigetti.com/philosophy
_kb · 2025-01-31
Practice. Don't just read, binge YouTube, or click through banal tutorials with a misplaced hope of learning through osmosis. You learn math by doing math. Most likely without a computer. It's unpleasant as you will be quite bad at it, but that's a good thing as it means you can get better. I'm a bit younger but also with kids and have been using the fracture in life that brings to fill in similar gaps in education. UoL have some courses as part of an online degree. I don't recommend it, but the references are good for fundamentals. I've been collecting them and some study notes here: https://simple.industries/notes/uol-comp-sci.html. The Susan Rigetti guide (https://www.susanrigetti.com/math) already posted is also an incredible reference. Also, learn with your kid(s)! There a whole set of publications around the math circles movement. I'm currently working through this with my 3yo: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/12689040.
fasterik · 2023-12-14
I'm a fellow programmer who has been self-learning physics for the past few months. My opinion is that a programming background will neither help nor hurt the "learning physics" part. It might help depending on what you want to do with the physics after you learn it, if that involves writing simulations or something like that. But really learning physics mostly involves reading and solving problems. Read textbooks. Solve lots of problems. Calculus, differential equations, and linear algebra are really important. Don't skip the core physics subjects (it's tempting to jump into the "cool" modern physics topics like quantum mechanics and general relativity before you have the necessary background). If you haven't taken any physics at the university level, you probably want to start with one of the standard calculus-based intro physics books like Young's University Physics. People speak highly of the Feynman Lectures, but I've also heard some physicists (e.g. Sean Carroll) say that they believe the Feynman Lectures are only good when you already know the subject matter. The core subjects in undergraduate physics are classical mechanics, electrodynamics, special relativity, quantum mechanics, and statistical mechanics/thermodynamics. You will encounter these subjects in your intro book, then take a second pass on each subject at a deeper level with more mathematical sophistication. General relativity and quantum field theory are usually taught at the graduate level or as…
cs702 · 2022-10-17
As always, this is written by someone who admits to never having learned to reason abstractly about algebraic objects, because it is hard. Quoting from the OP: > The traditional arithmetic I learned in the early grades made sense to me because I could relate it back to real-world things. Later, when I was learning how to design, finding the area of a circle proved essential to practical tasks such as sizing hydraulic and pneumatic cylinders. I could do trigonometry by visualizing, for example, the cables on a suspension bridge. But algebra: no. For a different perspective, I recommend reading instead Susan Rigetti (nee Fowler)'s posts about overcoming challenges to learn Math and Physics. She says she had to solve what felt like "millions of exercises" to become familiar with many abstract concepts, until they finally clicked for her and she was able to reason about them. In her words: "Solving problems is the only way to understand mathematics. There's no way around it." https://www.susanrigetti.com/math https://www.susanrigetti.com/physics https://www.susanjfowler.com/blog/2016/8/26/from-the-fledgling-physici…
bitexploder · 2022-05-11
rg111 · 2022-05-03
I was a Physics guy, a significant portion of my personality was centered around Physics. When I started my Physics major, I had to complete two advanced Maths courses titled- Mathematical Methods I, II. My love for Math took off from there. If you ask for books, then I would mention the MP book by Arfken, Weber, Harris. So minimal, yet straight to the point. Consistent and edifying. I read a different Maths book in HS than what everyone else read. It was a local book, but very well written by prominent Mathematical intellectuals- the kind that write Math columns or act as mentors of syllabus advisory committee. This made a huge difference. I liked Statistical Mechanics in college. I read Blundell and Blundell for it along with an unusual book as a reference- https://www.amazon.com/Thermal-Physics-Thermodynamics-Statistical-mech… . How Math explains the physical world so prominently blew my mind. I loved it. I also watched Calculus video from MIT-OCW when in HS. I switched to Deep Learning after college. How I could actually use Math to build something extremely practical made me love Math even more. This was the true turning point. I now want to spend three years- part-time, studying higher math by myself. I think it is worth it, and I want to do original, basic research in the Deep Learning space. While I keep my eye out for resources, I follow these lists- * https://www.susanrigetti.com/math *…
Luc · 2025-03-06
I found 'So You Want to Learn Physics...' helpful: https://www.susanrigetti.com/physics Agreed on prioritizing financial freedom.
fabianholzer · 2025-02-18
Susan Rigetti has written a guide for autodidactical studies, that might be helpful for this aim: https://www.susanrigetti.com/physics
rishikeshs · 2024-04-29
Check out these guides for theoretical physics: https://www.goodtheorist.science/ https://www.susanrigetti.com/physics
landosaari · 2024-03-25
Susan Rigetti has a nice overview [0] In this Susan recommends https://www.khanacademy.org/, which is good for most things learned in primary or secondary school. There is an open source curriculum equivalent for an undergrad compromised of MOOC and similar resources [1] Similar to the above is a markdown [2], with a scope directed towards people coming from a CS background. After this perhaps focus more on statistics & data science for metric interpretation. R for Data Science [3] is an option. [0] https://www.susanrigetti.com/math [1] https://github.com/ossu/math [2] https://github.com/NavigoLearn/RoadmapsMarkdown/blob/master/math/math for computer science/full-roadmap.md [3] https://r4ds.hadley.nz/
gammarator · 2023-11-11
https://www.susanrigetti.com/physics is aimed at learners who aren’t enrolled in a degree program.
Jabbles · 2023-08-20
To anyone interested in learning physics, I suggest reading https://www.susanrigetti.com/physics Do not try to learn anything from the submitted article, it promotes a, shall we say, "non-traditional" view of physics that is unlikely to be helpful.
Tomte · 2023-07-31
So you want to study philosophy: https://www.susanrigetti.com/philosophy
lurknot · 2023-07-17
found this when i searched HN asking the same question https://www.susanrigetti.com/math
robaye · 2023-02-16
I'm also interested into more of these "teach yourself x" curriculums if anyone has anymore to share. There's so many things I want to learn and I'm someone who likes (needs?) structure. Here's a few that I know of. Draw a Box: https://drawabox.com/ (Doesn't necessarily fit, but it's really good!) So You Want to Study Mathematics: https://www.susanrigetti.com/math So You Want to Study Philosophy: https://www.susanrigetti.com/philosophy So You Want to Learn Physics: https://www.susanrigetti.com/physics
Ishmaeli · 2023-01-19
Susan Fowler Rigetti posted a self-study curriculum last March: https://www.susanrigetti.com/math I don't know how good it is, but her earlier entries on Physics and Philosophy were well-received. HN thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30591177&p=2
Arjuna · 2022-12-05
You may find this resource useful. It was written by Susan Rigetti (née Fowler) [1]: So You Want to Study Mathematics https://www.susanrigetti.com/math She also wrote: So You Want to Learn Physics https://www.susanrigetti.com/physics [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Fowler
martincmartin · 2022-06-19
Susan Fowler has a guide for learning math, section 2 is "Introduction to Proofs." She suggests "How to Prove It: A Structured Approach" by Daniel J. Velleman. https://www.susanrigetti.com/math
webmaven · 2022-05-30
> You may find this resource useful. It was written by Susan Rigetti (née Fowler): > So You Want to Study Mathematics… > https://www.susanrigetti.com/math HN discussion here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30591177

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