Status Updates From How Not to Be Wrong: The Po...

Today about Expectation> Buffon, Cardamine, Pascal... Oh dear, the French were quite good at maths (and bets). This chapter features a nice deconstruction of Pascal's wager, a discussion of Shannon's communication theory, and an analysis of the utility idea.
Important Q> where did I read about Bernoulli before? T.T

Math is hard, even when explained so well by Ellenberg T.T I nearly confounded Bayes with Boole :O

On a different note, I do enjoy the (slightly) atheistic undertones of this book :D

Math is hard, even when explained so well by Ellenberg T.T I nearly confounded Bayes for Boole :O

On a different note, I do enjoy the (slightly) atheistic undertones of this book :D

For once, the blurbs don't lie. This is a delightful book indeed! ^^
PS> Features the same Mark Twain quote as Darrel Huff's How to Lie With Statistics. Still made me larf :D

For once, the blurbs don't lie. This is a delightful book indeed! ^^

Minus 500 for calling itself "the Freakonomics of math"

Thankfully this book has not been like Freakonomics, in that I am enjoying it immensely.

50

Nonlinear thinking means which way you should go depends on where you already are.

“You don’t send binoculars to do a telescope’s job.” - Jordan Ellenberg, 2014

this is a hard slog...

I'm not that far in, but already think this book should be mandatory reading. We really need to understand statistics, if only for politics, but think of other things like foods, health, and misleading advertisements! I'm going off base from the book here, but this is providing a great refresher on my old statistics classes.

Survival bias, why looking at where the bullitholes didn’t hit the plane is sometimes the answer to how not to crash.

للتوثيق فقط واتمنى اخلصه قبل نهاية السنة

“[...] improbable things happen a lot.” - Jordan Ellenberg, 2014.

Absolutely love it. Now, I am leaning towards to majoring in applied maths at college. Can't wait to apply maths on the phenomenon from economics to biology. I will now study multivariable on my own and take linear algebra in the university. Also, I am interested in using computer programming and data sci to do all the applied maths stuff. So excited and highly recommended so far!

"But the calculator enters only once you've figured out what calculation you want to do. [...] Dividing one number by another is mere computation, figuring out what you should divide by what is mathematics." - Jordan Ellenberg, 2014.

"An important rule of mathematical hygiene: when you're field-testing a mathematical method, try computing the same thing several different ways. If you get several different answers, something's wrong with your method." - Jordan Ellenberg, 2014.

It is a nice book to read.

Present till mig från min doktorand (biträdande handledare) när han disputerade. Gillar boken jättemycket. Dock endast brevidläsning till andra mer lättsmälta böcker.

very restless and anxious, can’t focus well. read a small bit about how Pascal framed faith in God as a wager - everlasting happiness in exchange for a day’s work

"Moral lesson: people who go into mathematics for fame and glory don't stay in mathematics for long" - Jordan Ellenberg, 2014

"Moral lesson: people who go into mathematics for fame and glory don't stay in mathematics for long" - Jordan Ellenberg, 2014

Chapter 9

Chapter 2, section: EVANESCENT INCREMENTS AND UNNECESSARY PERPLEXITIES

Part III, especially Chapter 13, Where the Train Tracks Meet, was exquisitely beautiful, showing the combination of non-Euclidean geometry, Shannon information theorem, Hamming error-correction codes and Bayesian inference, all wielded against playing the asymmetries of risk in poorly designed lotteries.

At times, it has felt like the mental equivalent of jogging up a hill, and it has been delightful.

So far, this is one of my favourite books of all time.

first chapter or so was really good and filled with fun math history and theory but the rest is just like every other popular science novel, it says to little in to many words..

i skipped over a few dussin pages because it was basically applied math and I don't enjoy things that can be useful, vive la theoretical science

That isn't "real" reading progress but something about this book screams "LEGENDARY".
All my life I've only thought math as a set of rules, and an invention of mental torture, because no matter how much effort I put in, all of it never made any sense.
The minutiae of how math acts as a backdrop for common sense is slowly seeping its way into my brain, and I want to explore it and take my time and wonder out loud.....

pretty interesting so far!