After the, uh, festivities after the final Regular Season Summer League Game, I decided to rest today.
My feet were also in big-pain territory as the whole "not wearing cleats for two weeks" thing caught up to me a bit. Doing workouts when your feet hurt are terrible. I did get a handful of core work in though, just to leave my total-rest day before a weekend of ultimate (Finals and Pike practice) until Friday.
Of other note, I've been reading Everything and More, by David Foster Wallace. It's about the history of how math deals with the notion of infinity. It gets into calculus and set theory and all of that, which I'm getting a kick out of. His writing style is still unique and somewhat abrasive. Sometimes he gets too much in his own way and obscures the matter at hand. I still enjoy it though. I think I'll be looking into more books that cover this sort of thing. Books that, while they don't shy away from technical explanations, also weave them into actual words and text that give context/history.
So, if anyone can recommend some good "History of Math" type books (specifically for a guy who got through Calc 2 and is willing to write out examples on scrap paper so that I understand what's going on), let me know!
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Workout total:
12 minutes core/upper body work
Thursday, August 16
Rest it up.
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6 comments:
These probably aren't the droids you're looking for, but my dad's reading "Godel, Escher, Bach" and enjoying it. He's a former math major and lifelong math nerd, so it's a solid recommendation. Oh and it won some obscure prize thing... sounds like Pauker... no, Pulitzer. Yeah, that one.
I've heard of that book. I think I'll drop by Strand today and see if i can get a copy.
Pauker? Did he or Sanchez win that crazy gameshow? I can never remember.
No idea... I don't think I've heard this story actually. Someone, anyone needs to step up.
Also, damn you for still being in New York and able to go to Strand! I miss buying books from people who hate people :(
'Godel, Escher, Bach' is a fantastic book and I can't reccomend it enough.
For something a little lighter, but also interesting, I enjoyed 'A Tour of the Calculus' by David Berlinski. Along the same vein (but not necessarily math-y), 'A Short History of Nearly Everything' by Bill Bryson is an entertaining tour of science.
I've heard good things about 'Zero' by Seife, but haven't actually read it. If you're looking for stuff that is somewhat technical, but still readable, you might be better off looking at books that cover direct subjects like e, pi, and phi; all of which have interesting stories behind them.
Wix:
I'd prefer to only go to stores filled with people who hate people. Fortunately, in NYC, this is possible.
George:
Both A Tour of the Calculus and A Short History of Nearly Everything were pretty solid (I think I read them last year or the year before). Bat as you seem to guess, I get into the technical stuff and they didn't as much.
My father read Zero a little bit ago. Maybe I should run to that next. I like the recommendation concerning specific subjects-- I think it is solid advice.
The notion of infinity; that reminds me of a philosophy class I took a two years ago. It was definitely my favorite class I've taken in college, even if most of my classes are poorly taught engineering classes.
Check out "Pi in the Sky", by John D. Barrow (1992). It's a kind of a philosophy of math (with some historical context). It's incredibly interesting, and one day I intend to finish it (or at least read all of the words, even if not in the right order).
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