A Numerate Life: A Mathematician Explores the Vagaries of Life, His Own and Probably Yours

Employing intuitive ideas from mathematics, this quirky meta-memoir raises questions about our lives that most of us don't think to ask, but arguably should: What part of memory is reliable fact, what part creative embellishment? Which favorite presuppositions are unfounded, which statistically biased? By conjoining two opposing mindsets--the suspension of disbelief required in storytelling and the skepticism inherent in the scientific method--bestselling mathematician John Allen Paulos has created an unusual hybrid, a composite of personal memories and mathematical approaches to re-evaluating them. Entertaining vignettes from Paulos's biography abound--ranging from a bullying math teacher and a fabulous collection of baseball cards to romantic crushes, a grandmother's petty larceny, and his quite unintended role in getting George Bush elected president in 2000. These vignettes serve as springboards to many telling perspectives: simple arithmetic puts life-long habits in a dubious new light; higher dimensional geometry helps us see that we're all rather peculiar; nonlinear dynamics explains the narcissism of small differences cascading into very different siblings; logarithms and exponentials yield insight on why we tend to become bored and jaded as we age; and there are tricks and jokes, probability and coincidences, and much more. For fans of Paulos or newcomers to his work, this witty commentary on his life--and yours--is fascinating reading.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Prometheus Books
Published: 11/10/2015
ISBN: 9781633881181
Pages: 206
Weight: 0.55lbs
Size: 8.90h x 6.00w x 0.60d

Review Citations: Publishers Weekly 09/07/2015
Library Journal 11/15/2015 pg. 101
Choice 04/01/2016