“I tell you, with complex numbers you can do anything.”
― Prime Obsession: Bernhard Riemann and the Greatest Unsolved Problem in Mathematics
― Prime Obsession: Bernhard Riemann and the Greatest Unsolved Problem in Mathematics
“To be an engineer, and build a marvelous machine, and to see the beauty of its operation is as valid an experience of beauty as a mathematician's absorption in a wondrous theorem. One is not "more" beautiful than the other. To see a space shuttle standing on the launch pad, the vented gases escaping, and witness the thunderous blast-off as it climbs heavenward on a pillar of flame - this is beauty. Yet it is a prime example of applied mathematics.”
― Mathematical Mysteries: The Beauty and Magic of Numbers
― Mathematical Mysteries: The Beauty and Magic of Numbers
“The nuclear weapons on board just one of our Trident submarines contain eight times the firepower expended in all of World War II.”
― Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences
― Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences
“A year earlier, no company had been accorded more faith than Enron; by late November, none was trusted less. And so, a gasping gurgle, a desperate SOS: Enron, the emblem of free markets, the champion of deregulation, reached into its depleted treasury and forked over $100,000 to each of the major political parties' campaign war chests. Then, it shuttered its online trading unit - its erstwhile gem. On November 28, Standard & Poor's downgraded Enron to junk-bond level - which triggered provisions in Enron's debt requiring it to immediately repay billions of its obligations. This it could not do. Its stock was seventy cents and falling, and, now, no gatekeepers and no credit remained. Accordingly, in the first week of December, Enron, the archetype of shareholder value, availed itself of the time-honored protection for those who have lost their credit: bankruptcy.”
― Origins of the Crash: The Great Bubble and Its Undoing
― Origins of the Crash: The Great Bubble and Its Undoing
“If you want to make money at some point, remember this, because this is one of the reasons startups win. Big companies want to decrease the standard deviation of design outcomes because they want to avoid disasters. But when you damp oscillations, you lose the high points as well as the low. This is not a problem for big companies, because they don't win by making great products. Big companies win by sucking less than other big companies. ”
― Hackers & Painters: Big Ideas from the Computer Age
― Hackers & Painters: Big Ideas from the Computer Age
Aaron’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Aaron’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
More friends…
Polls voted on by Aaron
Lists liked by Aaron

























