u/Trensocialist

>"in every way, the DSA of 2026 is a better organization than the one I joined in 2007. But my real worry is one that’s almost the opposite of the one Chait has. He is afraid the old democratic socialism is being strangled by a cabal of ultraleftists. My fear runs the other way. The likeliest outcome of electing this many socialists is not a lurch into authoritarian communism, but a new wave of reformers who govern competently, who create some good jobs and enshrine health care as a right, but who have no path to, or even desire for, a society free of capitalist exploitation and domination."

What degrees should I look into? What courses are required? What does a degree path in this look like?

The problem was, "How many 3 digit mountain numbers are there?" Where a mountain number is in the form of xyz. I basically listed out numbers in the form of xyz and then did X=1, saw the pattern, and went from there because I couldn't figure out how to do it with combinations. Here's the book's answer.

We break this into 3 cases.

Case 1: x≠0. Any pair of nonzero digits has a corresponding palindrome (xyz) mountain number, so the number of these is 9 choose 2=36.

Case 2: z≠0, x≠z. Any group of three nonzero digits (y>X>z>0) has two corresponding mountain numbers so the number of these is 2 times 9 choose 3=168.

Case 3: x≠0, y≠0. Any pair of nonzero digits has a corresponding mountain number in the form xy0, so there are 9 choose 2=36 of these.

36+36+168=240

This is all Greek to me. I dont understand how they could've known any of this off the bat, and I dont understand applying combinations to it. For example, if there are (9 choose 2) ways to pick the first number, wouldn't that count 29 which would make that number NOT a mountain number?

I follow a math tutor that does math problems on Instagram and I try tk challenge myself. theyre not super hard problems. Often prelagebra or algebra 1. Without fail I get every single one of them wrong every time and I feel like a total idiot because theyre so simple, and all the comments are like, "a 3Rd grader in India could do this" and I feel worse because I'm an adult trying to learn math seriously for thr first time. Do I keep following to challenge and practice and get better or is it not helping and I should give up?