Jordan > Jordan's Quotes

“I don't care what you think about me. I don't think about you at all.”
― Coco Chanel

“A basic rule of mathematical life: if the universe hands you a hard problem, try to solve an easier one instead, and hope the simple version is close enough to the original problem that the universe doesn’t object.”
― Jordan Ellenberg, How Not To Be Wrong: The Hidden Maths of Everyday

“Improbable things happen a lot.”
― Jordan Ellenberg, How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking

“Working an integral or performing a linear regression is something a computer can do quite effectively. Understanding whether the result makes sense—or deciding whether the method is the right one to use in the first place—requires a guiding human hand. When we teach mathematics we are supposed to be explaining how to be that guide. A math course that fails to do so is essentially training the student to be a very slow, buggy version of Microsoft Excel.”
― Jordan Ellenberg, How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking

“Dividing one number by another is mere computation ; knowing what to divide by what is mathematics.”
― Jordan Ellenberg, How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking

“if gambling is exciting, you’re doing it wrong.”
― Jordan Ellenberg, How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking

“One of the most painful parts of teaching mathematics is seeing students damaged by the cult of the genius. The genius cult tells students it’s not worth doing mathematics unless you’re the best at mathematics, because those special few are the only ones whose contributions matter. We don’t treat any other subject that way! I’ve never heard a student say, “I like Hamlet, but I don’t really belong in AP English—that kid who sits in the front row knows all the plays, and he started reading Shakespeare when he was nine!” Athletes don’t quit their sport just because one of their teammates outshines them. And yet I see promising young mathematicians quit every year, even though they love mathematics, because someone in their range of vision was “ahead” of them.”
― Jordan Ellenberg, How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking

“Nonlinear thinking means which way you should go depends on where you already are.”
― Jordan Ellenberg, How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking

“Mathematics is the extension of common sense by other means.”
― Jordan Ellenberg, How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking

“Math, like meditation, puts you in direct contact with the universe, which is bigger than you, was here before you, and will be here after you.”
― Jordan Ellenberg, How Not To Be Wrong: The Hidden Maths of Everyday