The human imagination seems able to explore two very different worlds: the realm of mathematics, statistics and exact science, and the contrasting world of personal experience. This book explores the unexpected relationships that tie these two worlds together.
This unique "meta-memoir" blends personal memories with mathematical concepts, prompting readers to reconsider the reliability of memory and the biases in their beliefs. By juxtaposing storytelling's suspension of disbelief with the skepticism of scientific inquiry, John Allen Paulos encourages introspection on the nature of memory and the assumptions we hold. The book challenges readers to question what constitutes fact versus embellishment in their lives, making it a thought-provoking exploration of perception and reality.
The preeminent explicator of mathematical logic to non-mathematicians, John Allen Paulos is familiar to general readers not only from his bestselling books but also from his media appearances, including "The David Letterman Show" and National Public Radio's "Talk of the Nation" and "Science Friday", as well as articles in Newsweek, Nature, Business Week, the New York Times Book Review, The Nation, New York Review of Books, and The London Review of Books. Paulos originally wrote this charming little book on analytic logic, its mathematics, and its puzzles in 1985. And as in his later books, he uses jokes, stories, parables, and anecdotes to elucidate difficult concepts, in this case, some of the fundamental problems in modern philosophy.
For decades, New York Times best-selling author John Allen Paulos has enlightened readers by showing how to make sense of the numbers and probabilities behind real-world events, political calculations, and everyday personal decisions. Who’s Counting? features dozens of his insightful essays—original writings on contemporary issues like the COVID-19 pandemic, online conspiracy theories, “fake news,” and climate change, as well as a selection of enduring columns from his popular ABC News column of the same name. With an abiding respect for reason, a penchant for puzzles with societal implications, and a disarming sense of humor, Paulos does in this collection what he’s famous clarifies mathematical ideas for everyone and shows how they play a role in government, media, popular culture, and life. He argues that if we can’t critically interpret numbers and statistics, we lose one of our most basic and reliable guides to reality.
In this book, Paulos argues that our inability to deal rationally with very large numbers results in misinformed governmental policies, confused personal decisions and an increased susceptibility to pseudo-sciences of all kinds. The discussion is illustrated with many quirky stories and anecdotes.
From crime figures to health scares, election polls to stock market forecasts, numbers make the news all the time. But are they accurate? This title travels through the pages of an average newspaper, revealing how mathematics is at the heart of the articles we read everyday - even horoscopes and the sports pages - and how often they mislead us.
John Allen Paulos cleverly scrutinizes the mathematical structures of jokes, puns, paradoxes, spoonerisms, riddles, and other forms of humor, drawing examples from such sources as Rabelais, Shakespeare, James Beattie, René Thom, Lewis Carroll, Arthur Koestler, W. C. Fields, and Woody Allen."Jokes, paradoxes, riddles, and the art of non-sequitur are revealed with great perception and insight in this illuminating account of the relationship between humor and mathematics."—Joseph Williams, New York Times"'Leave your mind alone,' said a Thurber cartoon, and a really complete and convincing analysis of what humour is might spoil all jokes forever. This book avoids that danger. What it does. . .is describe broadly several kinds of mathematical theory and apply them to throw sidelights on how many kinds of jokes work."— New Scientist"Many scholars nowadays write seriously about the ludicrous. Some merely manage to be dull. A few—like Paulos—are brilliant in an odd endeavor."— Los Angeles Times Book Review
Paulos offers a hillarious account of how the stock market both follows and defies mathematical principals. He offers an enagaing overview of everything from "betas" to the efficient market hypothesis.
Dlaczego tak niewiele wiemy o matematyce? I jaki jest społeczny koszt naszego 'matematycznego analfabetyzmu'? W tej wspaniałej książce John Allen Paulos przekonuje, że nasza niezdolność do racjonalnego radzenia sobie z bardzo dużymi liczbami albo ze związanym z nimi prawdopodobieństwem skutkuje bezpodstawnie prowadzonymi działaniami rządu, niepewnymi decyzjami osobistymi i większą podatnością na wpływ pseudonauki wszelkiej maści. 'Innumeracy' pomaga nam poznać nasze braki i dowiedzieć się, co możemy na to poradzić. 'Innumeracy' to zabawna, a zarazem bardzo poważna książka o matematyce. Tytuł dobrze określa jej zawartość: kłopoty z poprawnym rozumieniem liczb, prawdopodobieństw i statystyk. Błędy w tych sprawach popełnia większość ludzi, również dobrze wykształconych. Co gorsza, błędy te są obficie serwowane przez media, polityków i wszelkiej maści celebrytów, którzy uwielbiają nas pouczać. Kto wie, czy nie warto skorzystać z pomysłu Paulosa, żeby powołać do życia statystycznego rzecznika praw obywateli, którego zadaniem byłoby zwalczanie analfabetyzmu matematycznego w mediach. prof. dr hab. Tadeusz Tyszka, Akademia Leona Koźmińskiego 'Matematyczni analfabeci z pewnością skorzystają na lekturze tej zajmującej książki.' The New York Times Book Review
