How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking

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		How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking
		How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking

The Freakonomics of math—a math-world superstar unveils the hidden beauty and logic of the world and puts its power in our hands

The math we learn in school can seem like a dull set of rules, laid down by the ancients and not to be questioned. In How Not to Be Wrong, Jordan Ellenberg shows us how terribly limiting this view is: Math isn’t confined to abstract incidents that never occur in real life, but rather touches everything we do—the whole world is shot through with it.

Math allows us to see the hidden structures underneath the messy and chaotic surface of our world. It’s a science of not being wrong, hammered out by centuries of hard work and argument. Armed with the tools of mathematics, we can see through to the true meaning of information we take for granted: How early should you get to the airport? What does “public opinion” really represent? Why do tall parents have shorter children? Who really won Florida in 2000? And how likely are you, really, to develop cancer?

How Not to Be Wrong presents the surprising revelations behind all of these questions and many more, using the mathematician’s method of analyzing life and exposing the hard-won insights of the academic community to the layman—minus the jargon. Ellenberg chases mathematical threads through a vast range of time and space, from the everyday to the cosmic, encountering, among other things, baseball, Reaganomics, daring lottery schemes, Voltaire, the replicability crisis in psychology, Italian Renaissance painting, artificial languages, the development of non-Euclidean geometry, the coming obesity apocalypse, Antonin Scalia’s views on crime and punishment, the psychology of slime molds, what Facebook can and can’t figure out about you, and the existence of God.

Ellenberg pulls from history as well as from the latest theoretical developments to provide those not trained in math with the knowledge they need. Math, as Ellenberg says, is “an atomic-powered prosthesis that you attach to your common sense, vastly multiplying its reach and strength.” With the tools of mathematics in hand, you can understand the world in a deeper, more meaningful way. How Not to Be Wrong will show you how.

网友对How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking的评论

My mistake. I thought is was going to be a more popularized version of the interface between mathematics the real world. It was there, I suppose, but the math was over my head and I felt somewhere between bewildered and stupid. Not an unusual condition for me, but the book didn't help much. I struggled through about half of it before deciding it was just too much work. I think my son-in-law might enjoy it more.
If you are going to enjoy the book, you should have an interest in mathematics for mathematics's sake and make the judgement of the book on that basis.
I'm probably not being fair to the author. It's a good book, but you should be aware of what you're getting.

I've read many popular books about mathematics. The same stories often recur: How the two spirals made by the spots on a pineapple are numbers in the Fibonacci series. Hogwash. If these writers would look at a pineapple instead of copying each other, they'd realize that the spirals seem to always hit one or two ambiguous points where there is a choice of directions to go, so you can just as easily say they always produce numbers that are NOT in the Fibonnaci series. Or they always produce a multiple of three. Or if you line up six pineapples and count the spirals, you can spell "Mother Teresa."

Jordan Ellenberg is original. And smart. And a good writer. Again and again, he explored topics that were new to me, and with original lines of reasoning. Some are his subjects come from the abstract world of mathematics: I've never seen such a clear and interesting description of non-Euclidean geometry. Most, as the title implies, are directly relevant to daily life. Here's why, when Wisconsin Republicans declared that "over 50 percent of U.S. job growth in June came from our state," that was hogwash too.

He deals with some complex topics and I had to pay close attention. As someone without a formal math background, a couple of times I had to go back a few pages and re-apply myself to following his argument. It was always worth the effort, and I'll look forward to whatever he writes next.

This book touches on many interesting mathematical thoughts, theories, and and applications. Warning; if you didn't start with a strong understanding of math you will struggle to comprehend the underlying principles of this book. Even if you do have a a good grasp of mathematics, the book tends to ramble on. It's a 430 page book that should have been 250-300 pages. For example, the last chapter "How Mot to be Wrong" was essentially 20 pages saying it's fine to say "I dunno." It was an interesting but not necessarily entertaining book.

There are some interesting anecdotes in this book on the power of mathematical thinking. And, there are some mind twisting concepts. Here are two for you:
- Does .9999... = 1?
- Does the series +1-1+1-1+1-1... = 1/2?

There are additional concepts like this that will excite your mathematical mind (and I only recommend this book for individuals interested in mathematics). However, most of the book covers probability and statistics - e.g. expected value, Baynesian decision theory, hypothesis testing, etc. (which I love but you might not..) And, the book covers it with a political perspective, i.e. what is wrong with political polls and why statistics are mis-used in politics, etc.

I disagree with the reviews that mention this author's bias against conservatives. Although he may be a liberal, he doesn't bias his writing too much in any direction.

However, the continual discussion of use and misuse of mathematics in politics can get tiring.

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