Francis Su

"The ancient Greeks argued that the best life was filled with beauty, truth, justice, play and love. The mathematician Francis Su knows just where to find them."--Kevin Hartnett, Quanta Magazine" ﻿This is perhaps the most important mathematics book of our time. Francis Su shows mathematics is an experience of the mind and, most important, of the heart."--James Tanton, Global Math Project For mathematician Francis Su, a society without mathematical affection is like a city without concerts, parks, or museums. To miss out on mathematics is to live without experiencing some of humanity's most beautiful ideas. In this profound book, written for a wide audience but especially for those disenchanted by their past experiences, an award-winning mathematician and educator weaves parables, puzzles, and personal reflections to show how mathematics meets basic human desires--such as for play, beauty, freedom, justice, and love--and cultivates virtues essential for human flourishing. These desires and virtues, and the stories told here, reveal how mathematics is intimately tied to being human. Some lessons emerge from those who have struggled, including philosopher Simone Weil, whose own mathematical contributions were overshadowed by her brother's, and Christopher Jackson, who discovered mathematics as an inmate in a federal prison. Christopher's letters to the author appear throughout the book and show how this intellectual pursuit can--and must--be open to all.

Mathematics for Human Flourishing

charisa

i think that few books have changed my perspective on something entirely. if they have, it has often been indirectly through fictional storytelling (or perhaps most directly through the Bible). non-fiction has often been informative, but when was the last time i was inspired to seek something out for myself? 

after marathoning this book, i am so deeply touched by the beauty of mathematics. maybe it's my (very) faint background as an artist shining through, but all of the symmetry and explorative questioning ("what if we tried this?") presented enthralled me. yes, of course patterns and reasoning and observation and imagination can be beautiful! how many times have i seen this reflected in literature and art, two forms of creative insight that i love so much? i regret that it has taken me this long to realize it in math as well. 

su does a commendable job in touching on mathematical concepts within a framework of common virtues in order to provide context and justification for why math is innately tied with being human. i actually didn't know he was christian until he casually paraphrased the Bible lol, but i would have probably guessed as i progressed through the book. even without explicit prompting, i found myself thinking repeatedly, isn't our God so amazing and creative? his world is full of wonders. like pls, pathological shapes?? the alexander horned sphere is so cool. is it possible to feel emotional over a shape? idk, i guess there is a first time for everything lol

but yeah! where to go from here? wishing now that i had explored more math in college and didn't shirk it out of fear and intimidation. a close friend of mine wrote a narrative piece in college about his love for math, and while i didn't quite grasp his fascination then, upon re-reading it now, i can feel a sliver of understanding (or at least the beginnings hm). i guess i will continue to read!! and finish the puzzles lol

Gavin

A society without mathematical affection is like a city without concerts, parks, or museums.

Something went wrong, that I don't love this book. I think the technical is essential for real intellectual work; normal mind-numbing maths education put me off for years; I thirst for meaning; it's by a teacher at one of the best maths schools in the world (actual best, not just Fancy). But it's essentially a hippie self-help book which got into a university press. I'm surprised it doesn't open by saying namaste to me.

  People often think of abstraction as stripping away meaning. But in fact, abstraction does the opposite—it enriches meaning. When you see that two things have similar structures or behavior, then those similarities create a connection, a new meaning for you that wasn’t there before. Poincaré famously said that “mathematics is the art of giving the same name to different things".


  “make your daughter practice math. She’ll thank you later.”13 The op-ed never asked the question of how to teach math so she’ll thank you now.


The list of values at the back is shockingly poorly conceptualised. But Su is a powerful analyst - just one rule for abstractions and another for humans. (All I want is humanism without sentimental overreach. It's unclear whether I can have this.)

One problem: he is too nice for me. (“Let me start by thanking you, the reader, for taking the time to sit with this book and these ideas. Simone Weil said, “Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity”) It's a very Christian book. Not in its metaphysics: in its intentional naivety, piety, humility, and cuddliness (though Weil and Buber and MacIntyre come up). He is credulous about the findings of educational psychology, including the absurd Pygmalion effect size. Every chapter includes a letter from a maths student in prison, the book ends with a long awkward interview with him, and Su gave some fraction of the royalties to him. One exception: chapter 9, a laudation for power. A huge number of smart people talk as if coercive power was the only sort. They are poisoned by paying too much attention to society.

Years of study have still not given me the virtues Su rightly names - persistence, patience, disposition towards abstract beauty, gaman. Ain't giving up though.

  Maryam Mirzakhani... once said: “The beauty of mathematics only shows itself to more patient followers."
 I know.

  At my local hiking club, there’s bonding over a shared love of hiking. When it’s time to go, we split into different skill levels to do the hike at various speeds. I have no trouble admitting that I’m a slow hiker” By contrast, in mathematics the joy often requires the skill. 

Borcherds made me laugh: 
  “I was over the moon when I proved the moonshine conjecture. If I get a good result I spend several days feeling really happy about it.
Days!

The puzzles are all nice and can be solved in your head, a good property. But read Rota, Hersch, Taleb, Lockhart, Gardner, Byers for the meat.

Mathematics for Human Flourishing

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