335 books
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1,384 voters
“This is a common theme in human progress. We make things beyond what we understand, and we always have done. Steam engines worked before we had a theory of thermodynamics; vaccines were developed before we knew how the immune system works; aircraft continue to fly to this day, despite the many gaps in our understanding of aerodynamics. When theory lags behind application, there will always be mathematical surprises lying in wait. The important thing is that we learn from these inevitable mistakes and don’t repeat them.”
― Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors
― Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors
“Mathematicians aren’t people who find math easy; they’re people who enjoy how hard it is.”
― Humble Pi: When Math Goes Wrong in the Real World
― Humble Pi: When Math Goes Wrong in the Real World
“Humans instinctively perceive numbers logarithmically, not linearly. A young child or someone who has not been indoctrinated by education will place three halfway between one and nine.”
― Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors
― Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors
“Because we all make mistakes. Relentlessly. And that is nothing to be feared”
― Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors
― Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors
“If a thousand people read a book, they read a thousand different books. But if a thousand people read an equation, they read the same equation.”
― Lost in Math: How Beauty Leads Physics Astray
― Lost in Math: How Beauty Leads Physics Astray
John’s 2025 Year in Books
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