I have read "Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk" by Peter Bernstein. I was wondering (for those who have read it as well) if you could recommend any other books of this type. i.e. Non-fictional treatment of mathematical / statistical / financial concepts.
2007-12-23 16:32:28 · 3 answers · asked by Trouser 3 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Mathematics
I didn't love that book -- I only got halfway through it, or less.
The two closest to it are the one on the golden mean (probably with exactly that title), and the one on the history of zero.
What I think are really interesting are the books on modern applied mathematics. Linked is probably the most accessible (it's the one about "six degrees of Kevin Bacon"/power law kinds of stuff). Sync (obviously copying the one-word title idea) is tougher going.
All of these should be easy for you to identify with a bit of web searching. If I'm wrong about that, please send me a message and I'll try to dig up the exact references for you.
Oh -- another great book, which was path-breaking scholarship when it was introduced, was Tom Schelling's The Strategy of Conflict. It's a big part of what inspired me to study game theory. And the best part of being at the Kennedy School was having lunch with Tom. He and the book both are awesome, and I'm thrilled that he recently won the Nobel Prize.
And I don't recall the math actually being particular hard.
2007-12-23 17:57:04 · answer #1 · answered by Curt Monash 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I just started reading "Zero | the biography of a dangerous idea" by Charles Seife im about 1/3 of the way through it and I think it is a very good book so far. I recommend taking a look at this book
2007-12-24 01:59:42 · answer #2 · answered by z32486 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You might like 'Freakonomics'.
2007-12-24 03:56:30 · answer #3 · answered by ChatNoir 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋