Math for hackers

Be honest: When you're hacking, aren't you really building a world inside a system that operates according to fixed, pedantic, boring rules? (And when the system does not operate according to those rules, do you not get annoyed?) That's secretly a form of applied mathematics! Now, math has been around for hundreds of years and has helped humanity build worlds of the mind, some of them to help understand reality around us. This is just like software, and thus math can help use build better worlds inside the computer. Forget the boring math you learned in school: Enter the world of monoids and abstract nonsense! Understand how you can use it to build better worlds and more useful software, and to enjoy hacking even more!