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

Best-selling mathematician John Allen Paulos describes this autobiography as "a meta-memoir, even an anti-memoir." Employing ideas from mathematics, he raises questions that most of us don't think to ask, but arguably should, about all memoirs or eve... Read more

Best-selling mathematician John Allen Paulos describes this autobiography as "a meta-memoir, even an anti-memoir." Employing ideas from mathematics, he raises questions that most of us don't think to ask, but arguably should, about all memoirs or even when thinking about our own lives: How do we really know that? What part of memory is reliable fact versus creative embellishment? By conjoining two opposing mindsets--the suspension of disbelief required in story telling with the show-me tentativeness inherent to mathematics--Paulos has created an interesting hybrid, a composite of memories and techniques for testing their validity. Along with entertaining tales ranging from a bullying math teacher and a fabulous collection of baseball cards to romantic crushes, meeting his wife Sheila, and the joys of grandchildren, the reader receives a painless introduction to some very useful math. If you're wondering how to apply some logic to the helter-skelter of your own life, Paulos will show you a few tricks of his trade: how simple arithmetic can put life-long habits into perspective; how higher dimensional geometry can help us see that we're all strange; how nonlinear dynamics can explain why small genetic differences can result in two very different siblings; how logarithms and exponentials shed light on why we tend to become bored and jaded as we age; and much, much more. For fans of Paulos's previous books or newcomers to his work, this witty, debunking, and educational commentary on his life--and yours--is indispensable reading. Less