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Show HN: Make math automatic with Mathy
I finally built Mathy, a little project I’ve been thinking about for a couple years. It’s free, and no account is required if you want to try it on iOS or web.
I use Math Academy daily, which is the best way to learn math. But I wanted a mobile-friendly way to drill math and weak areas on the go that was more convenient/less cumbersome than Anki cards.
It’s also a nice way to do something productive (feel like I’m building towards something) in those spare moments here and there rather than scrolling.
The gist of Mathy is counterintuitive: If it works, you’ll use it less. For example, as your topics become automatic, recommended practice sessions can get weeks apart or longer (you can still practice whenever you want).
First, I’m a huge proponent of Math Academy, their philosophy and everything Justin shares about learning (check it out), so I won’t recap that here.
I want to be much better at advanced math, but I’m not a naturally gifted mathematician and bump into a ceiling.
I also intentionally don’t put in as much time and focus as I could. It’s a hobby. Though I have consistency over a long period of time, my daily volume is quite low. But I’m ok with that, and I’m quite happy with the progress I’m making given the time I put in. It fits well into my life.
So to give myself an advantage, I wanted an easier way to drill math to make more things automatic. I’m curious how far I can go there and how much automaticity can raise my ceiling given my other constraints.
And though Math Academy is the best way to learn math, it focuses on lessons, reviews and quizzes, not drilling like flashcards. But there are plenty of other tools for that, which I experimented with.
The most popular seemed to be Anki cards. And though Anki is a flexible tool, it wasn’t ideal for math. It was also cumbersome to create and maintain cards.