Jordan Ellenberg is the John D. MacArthur Professor of Mathematics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a 2015 Guggenheim fellow. He has lectured around the world on his research in number theory and delivered one of the invited addresses at the 2015 Joint Mathematics Meetings, the largest math conference in the world. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, Wired, and The Believer, and he has been featured on the Today show and NPR’s All Things Considered. He writes a popular column called “Do the Math” for Slate.
“Brilliantly engaging . . . Ellenberg’s talent for finding
real-life situations that enshrine mathematical principles would be
the envy of any math teacher. He presents these in fluid
succession, like courses in a fine restaurant, taking care to make
each insight shine through, unencumbered by jargon or notation.
Part of the sheer intellectual joy of the book is watching the
author leap nimbly from topic to topic, comparing slime molds to
the Bush-Gore Florida vote, criminology to Beethoven’s Ninth
Symphony. The final effect is of one enormous mosaic unified by
mathematics.” —Manil Suri, The Washington Post
“Easy-to-follow, humorously presented . . . This book will help you
to avoid the pitfalls that result from not having the right tools.
It will help you realize that mathematical reasoning permeates our
lives—that it can be, as Mr. Ellenberg writes, a kind of 'X-ray
specs that reveal hidden structures underneath the messy and
chaotic surface of the world.'” —Mario Livio, The Wall
Street Journal
“Witty, compelling, and just plain fun to read . . . How Not
to Be Wrong can help you explore your mathematical
superpowers.” —Evelyn Lamb, Scientific American
“A poet-mathematician offers an empowering and entertaining primer
for the age of Big Data . . . A rewarding popular math book for
just about anyone.” —Laura Miller, Salon
“Mathematicians from Charles Lutwidge Dodgson to Steven Strogatz
have celebrated the power of mathematics in life and the
imagination. In this hugely enjoyable exploration of everyday maths
as 'an atomic-powered prosthesis that you attach to your common
sense', Jordan Ellenberg joins their ranks. Ellenberg, an academic
and Slate’s ‘Do the Math’ columnist, explains key principles with
erudite gusto—whether poking holes in predictions of a US 'obesity
apocalypse', or unpicking an attempt by psychologist B. F. Skinner
to prove statistically that Shakespeare was a dud at
alliteration.” —Nature
“A fresh application of complex mathematical thinking to
commonplace events . . . How Not to Be Wrong is beautifully
written, holding the reader’s attention throughout with well-chosen
material, illuminating exposition, wit and helpful examples. I am
reminded of the great writer of recreational mathematics, Martin
Gardner: Ellenberg shares Gardner’s remarkable ability to write
clearly and entertainingly, bringing in deep mathematical ideas
without the reader registering their difficulty.” —Times
Higher Education
“The author avoids heavy jargon and relies on real-world anecdotes
and basic equations and illustrations to communicate how even
simple math is a powerful tool . . . [Ellenberg] writes that, at
its core, math is a special thing and produces a feeling of
understanding unattainable elsewhere: ‘You feel you’ve reached into
the universe’s guts and put your hand on the wire.’ Math is
profound, and profoundly awesome, so we should use it well—or risk
being wrong . . . Witty and expansive, Ellenberg’s math will leave
readers informed, intrigued and armed with plenty of impressive
conversation starters.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Readers will indeed marvel at how often mathematics sheds
unexpected light on economics (assessing the performance of
investment advisors), public health (predicting the likely
prevalence of obesity in 30 years), and politics (explaining why
wealthy individuals vote Republican but affluent states go for
Democrats). Relying on remarkably few technical formulas, Ellenberg
writes with humor and verve as he repeatedly demonstrates that
mathematics simply extends common sense. He manages to translate
even the work of theoretical pioneers such as Cantor and Gödel into
the language of intelligent amateurs. The surprises that await
readers include not only a discovery of the astonishing versatility
of mathematical thinking but also a realization of its very real
limits. Mathematics, as it turns out, simply cannot resolve the
real-world ambiguities surrounding the Bush-Gore cliff-hanger of
2000, nor can it resolve the much larger question of God’s
existence. A bracing encounter with mathematics that
matters.” —Booklist
“The title of this wonderful book explains what it adds to the
honorable genre of popular writing on mathematics. Like Lewis
Carroll, George Gamow, and Martin Gardner before him, Jordan
Ellenberg shows how mathematics can delight and stimulate the mind.
But he also shows that mathematical thinking should be in the
toolkit of every thoughtful person—of everyone who wants to avoid
fallacies, superstitions, and other ways of being
wrong.” —Steven Pinker, Johnstone Family Professor of
Psychology, Harvard University; author of How the Mind
Works
“With math as with anything else, there’s smart, and then there’s
street smart. This book will help you be both. Fans of Freakonomics
and The Signal and the Noise will love Ellenberg’s surprising
stories, snappy writing, and brilliant lessons in numerical savvy.
How Not to Be Wrong is sharp, funny, and right.” —Steven
Strogatz, Schurman Professor of Applied Mathematics, Cornell
University, and author, The Joy of x
“Through a powerful mathematical lens Jordan Ellenberg engagingly
examines real-world issues ranging from the fetishizing of straight
lines in the reporting of obesity to the game theory of missing
flights, from the relevance to digestion of regression to the mean
to the counter-intuitive Berkson’s paradox, which may explain why
handsome men don’t seem to be as nice as not so handsome ones. The
coverage is broad, but not shallow and the exposition is
non-technical and sprightly.” —John Allen Paulos, author
of Innumeracy and A Mathematician Reads the
Newspaper
“Jordan Ellenberg is a top mathematician and a wonderful expositor,
and the theme of his book is important and timely. How Not to Be
Wrong is destined to be a classic.” —Timothy Gowers
“Jordan Ellenberg promises to share ways of thinking that are both
simple to grasp and profound in their implications, and he delivers
in spades. These beautifully readable pages delight and enlighten
in equal parts. Those who already love math will eat it up, and
those who don’t yet know how lovable math is are in for a most
pleasurable surprise." —Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, author
of Plato at the Googleplex
"Brilliant and fascinating! Ellenberg shows his readers how to
magnify common sense using the tools usually only accessible to
those who have studied higher mathematics. I highly recommend it to
anyone interested in expanding their worldly savviness—and math
IQ!" —Danica McKellar, actress and bestselling author
of Math Doesn’t Suck and Kiss My Math
“How Not to Be Wrong is a cheery manifesto for the utility of
mathematical thinking. Ellenberg's prose is a delight—informal and
robust, irreverent yet serious. Maths is 'an atomic-powered
prosthesis that you attach to your common sense, vastly multiplying
its reach and strength,' he writes. Doing maths 'is to be, at once,
touched by fire and bound by reason. Logic forms a narrow channel
through which intuition flows with vastly augmented
force.'” —The Guardian
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