Tue

Jul 11
2006

Tim O'Reilly

Tim O'Reilly

The Arithmetic of Life

For the numerate among us, it's sometimes hard to understand those who are not (just as it's sometimes hard for the literate, or the emotionally intelligent, or the physically gifted, to understand the failings of their less capable counterparts.) I've just discovered a lovely little book that I intend to give to the numerically challenged in my life. It's called The Arithmetic of Life. It uses homely stories and common life occurrences to illustrate how an understanding of arithmetic, statistics, and probability can help you make better choices, and better understand the world around you. For the rest of us, there's Statistics Hacks, Mind Hacks, and Mind Performance Hacks.

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Comments: 5

  adamsj [07.11.06 08:05 AM]

It says something about your fundamentally optimistic worldview, Tim, that you leave "and Death" out of the book title.

  Tim O'Reilly [07.11.06 08:40 AM]

John Adams -- No it doesn't (although I am optimistic). It just means I read the original hardcover, which had the title I cited, rather than the current paperback to which I linked.

  Ole Olson [07.11.06 09:57 AM]

I'll add this one to my nieces reading list. It will go well with the one recommended by the Sand Hill Slave recently

http://www.sandhillslave.com/journal/2006/7/3/basic-instinct-iii-the-math-within.html

  Kevin Farnham [07.11.06 10:17 AM]

This reminds me: what ever happened to the series of books like "Physics: the Missing Manual" and "Chemistry: the Missing Manual" and "Statistics: the Missing Manual"? They were discussed on the Missing Manuals "Write for Us" page about 9 months ago, and there was a little assignment the prospective author was supposed to perform.

For example, for "Physics: the Missing Manual" the assignment involved writing 5 pages in Missing Manual style about Inductance, plus outlining the full chapter on electricity and magnetism. I thought about my 5 pages of lively inductance writing during the Holiday season last year, then when I went back to Missing Manuals "Write for Us" page the science/math books were no longer discussed. Now I see that you put out "Statistics Hacks" in May.

Did the science/math Missing Manuals series disappear because of a lack of received proposals? Or was it because it was thought the books wouldn't sell adequately? I'd think a well-written "Physics: the Missing Manual" could be a decent seller in terms of total sales over time, provided it was updated every 5-7 years with a few pages on recent discoveries. It would be a backlist type of book, in comparison with standard computer/software books, relevant over the long term with minimal edits, since basic physics doesn't change rapidly...

  Thomas Armagost [07.11.06 07:05 PM]

I'm semi-numerate. What really hurts is that I'm not a hacker. Today I fired off a followup to a usenet message that had been crossposted to the Linux advocacy newsgroup. Writing about even the simplest aspects of Linux ain't easy for me to do.

I've devised this mantra... "Hey, if I can you do it, you can."

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