Hacker News Reader

Comment by spanxx | Hacker News Reader

Would you recommend that book to a software engineer with an interest in Maths?

I think A Mathematician's Apology is a good read, but if you're looking to learn mathematics there are probably better places to start.

If you want a cursory view of various parts of mathematics, you might prefer Courant's book "What is Mathematics?". Depending on your background and interest, there is a volume of books (available as a consolidated cheap Dover paperback) called Mathematics: Its Content, Meaning, and Methods.

I recently came across A Programmer's Book of Mathematics[0] -- I haven't read it, but the author is a developer and the content might be more appropriate if you're just starting out -- both of the other books I mentioned are older, and are really wonderful texts, but might possibly be overwhelming depending on your appetite and background.

Finally, if you're more interested in math that's relevant to software engineers, there's Knuth's book "Concrete Mathematics".

I'd second the "What is Mathematics?" and "Mathematics: Its Content, Methods and Meaning" recommendations, in that order. Both are very cheap, comprehensive, and in ascending rigour. After those, it's really dealer's choice, with "Concrete Mathematics" being of particular interest to computer scientist.

Additionally:

- "Princeton Companion to Mathematics" is really fun to have around for exploration

- if you're really really rusty with math, take a week or two with "Mathematical Handbook - Elementary Mathematics" by Vygodsky

I literally have all these on my desk at this very moment, what a fun coincidence.

No. It's been a while since I read it, but I found it an unapologetic, tedious, arrogant, self-serving screed lionising pure mathematics (and its practitioners, but only the very best), denigrating anything applied or even applicable, yet basically asking the hoi polloi doing that nether pedestrian work of actually working to put food on his table.

And, it's not even particularly good in instilling some appreciation of the beauty of mathematics.

Save your time.

I'm not complaining, just pointing it out because it's an interesting quibble: "hoi" means "the" in greek, so no need to say "the hoi polloi"

It's not much about maths, it's a memoir by a particular mathematician written at an unhappy point in his life, reflecting back on what he has done. It belongs more to the literature about artists and creativity, than to books of mathematical content. For that, see instead Hardy's Course of Pure Mathematics [1]

If you do read the Apology, be sure to get an edition with C.P. Snow's forward, which gives the back story that puts Hardy's memoir in context. It also includes the wonderful story of Hardy and Ramanujan.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Course_of_Pure_Mathematics

It's a great read. I have also found a great reading list of from the University of Cambridge[0] that has a whole different range of books and websites for those who have a cursory interest in Mathematics.

[0] https://www.maths.cam.ac.uk/sites/www.maths.cam.ac.uk/files/...

Slightly updated version of the list at https://www.maths.cam.ac.uk/documents/reading-list.pdf/

I would suggest picking up a textbook in mathematics for a specific area relevant to your interest.

I found that studying specific topics (currently probability theory and statistics) helped me comprehend the field better and in ways that make it practical for my planned career.

Definitely, it's a brilliant read.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com