Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by kqr2 3296 days ago
There are quite a few popular books on this topic, e.g. How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking :

https://smile.amazon.com/How-Not-Be-Wrong-Mathematical/dp/01...

1 comments

This is a good example of how applied mathematics can be useful, but I think we also need good examples of how pure mathematics can be useful as well. Most pure mathematics folks do talk about how it is like lifting weights, what they often fail to mention is how having words for very abstract things can cut out a lot of detail and allow you to see relationships between elements that would otherwise be obscured by that very detail. For this I think Eugenia Cheng's book "How to bake Pi" is a good example.

https://smile.amazon.com/How-Bake-Pi-Exploration-Mathematics...