Math(s)

* I want to program.
* I know no maths.
* I am an idiot.

What book should I buy to learn maths, /prog/?

First read SICP, then Concrete Mathematics.

>>1
You say you know no maths, but be more specific on your level of understanding.

Wiki has a fuckton of material. Learn to prove (or disprove) ideas. You know a^2 + b^2 = c^2, but why? Become enlightened.

If you don't want to learn everything about math, stay the fuck away from graphics programming. However, you should have a pretty good grasp on logic, which you'll obviously need to write coherent code.

A decent understanding of mathematics can go a long way, though.

>>3
I know basic arithmetic but can't do it mentally (my brain seriously went kaput in my early twenties--I think I need to see a doctor).
I think I vaguely remember integration? With the long S. And you'd "bring the power down and multiply" but I don't know what that means.

http://brain.oxfordjournals.org/content/123/11/2240.short

FPS games and RTS games can focus on ratios, value representation, decision making speeds, and spatial processing.

Nethack and Dwarf Fortress will rape your symbolic recognition and long-term memory and motor/analytical response

Memorizing 20x20 multiplication table instead of 12x12 can hasten multiplication, division, and can improve the brain enough to make it easier to memorize rote shit later.

Brain Workshop is a go-to for verbal short-term memory and attention control enhancement, though it's unlikely to really help with much other stricter processing (though we do use verbal for a lot of general tasks)

Stuff like Braid, Portal 1 (a little of 2), Tremulous, some RTS, and Unreal engine games like Deus Ex (The Nameless Mod with it) and Postal 2 can improve problem solving and "creativity" skills. Tremulous, Portal 1 (and 2), and Postal 2 can really give an appreciation of space not found in many games these days (way too small). Note, Unreal engine games have forced mouse accel which you'd need to find a fix for if you're running Win7/Vista. MarkC's mouse accel fix is one, though it's not as rigorous as dll hacks since it's only a registry edit.

Read "The C Programming Language" AKA K&R. It's the best introduction to programming you can get, and C is the perfect language to start programming with because it makes you actually learn programming rather than certain gimmicks some languages have.

>>6
s/some languages/all other languages/

Graham, Knuth, Patashnik, Concrete Mathematics.

>>5
Nice marketing move. Next they will tell us that watching ads cures cancer.

>>6
How C/C++ is better than Assembly?

>>6
http://c.learncodethehardway.org/book/learn-c-the-hard-waych55.html

>>11
Zed is deranged, do not believe anything he shits out.

Cardinality is studied for its own sake as part of set theory. It is also a tool used in branches of mathematics including combinatorics, abstract algebra, and mathematical analysis. In category theory, the cardinal numbers form a skeleton of the category of sets.

Elementary set theory can be studied informally and intuitively, and so can be taught in primary schools using Venn diagrams. The intuitive approach tacitly assumes that a set may be formed from the class of all objects satisfying any particular defining condition.