Pre 1200: Beginnings Probability and risk was borne out of gambling It begun in Greece, when their philosophers were at the forefront of intellectual discussion Counting and numbers were needed before probability could be known Fibonacci and his series The golden ratio The abacus The number system was developed by hindus The centrepeice of the Read more
Characters Karamazovs Fyodor Petrovitch Karamazov – Father and victim Dmitri (Mitya) Karamazov – Eldest son and the romantic Ivan Fyodorovich Karamazov – Middle son and the academic/thinker Aleksey (Alyosha) Karamazov – Youngest son, the spiritual one and the “hero of the story” Pavel Fyodorovich Smerdyakov – Bastard son between Fyodor Karamazov and a homeless woman Lizaveta, manservant to the Karamazov
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I read this book after really enjoying reading the speech Hamming gave called You and your research. If you’re unsure if you want to give the whole book a read (it is a hefty tome), then start with that. The speech summarises the idea of the whole book, namely, using the one shot you get at
The Art of Doing Science and Engineering Read More »
This is a really good book that essentially says we should find values in our lives that we see as more important than our own suffering. Such that we would willingly be uncomfortable in the name of something more important. Because happiness comes through suffering for the right causes, and coming out the other side
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Very detailed account of how to approach a book, how to ask it questions and how to read different types of books. The main idea is to think of a book as a conversation with the author: What are they trying to tell you, and what questions do you have? If on the other hand
How to Read a Book Read More »
A classic for a reason. The book is very well organised, you never find yourself lost or wondering “how does this relate to the book/chapter?”. Each chapter explains one characteristic of human psychology and how it can be used to influence an individual. But so as to not sound so evil, the approach is how
In my opinion, when it comes to physics, Richard Feynmen is the daddy. He was known as ‘the great explainer’ for a reason. This book is taken from a lecture series he did at Cornell university. And true to his nickname, he explains each concept brilliantly. Each idea is explained conceptually and in a way
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This book has a lot of gold in it, but you’ve got to put in the work to go looking for it. The old fashioned english used and the fact there is no organisation to the book (it’s just one long piece of text) make it among the harder books to read. Especially at the
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This is a great book to read when you are young. It’s all about ‘writing your own story’ in life and making memories along the way. It’s very biographical too, which makes it heart-warming as well as inspirational. It is much easier to relate to Donald Miller because he is speaking from experience. It makes
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Will and Ariel Durant wrote a beastly eleven-volume set of books called ‘The Story of Civilization’. This book is a much more approachable summary of what the themes they found across those eleven books. I like it more than most history books I’ve read because it discusses themes and principles more than specific events. If
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