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3.71 AVERAGE
3.71 AVERAGE
Sometimes feels like Ellenberg himself went on a random walk through the topics.
Ellenberg believes that geometry is the basis for all of our mathematical knowledge and I can see his point, but sometimes this book gets lost in dark corners of the mathematics world.
The final chapter, on reapportionment, is very long and takes a long time to state that it’s just one of those things that people have to live with.
The final chapter, on reapportionment, is very long and takes a long time to state that it’s just one of those things that people have to live with.
Improves as it goes. Better explanations for a number of concepts than any other I’ve read.
Some parts of the book is quite entertaining. A math major would probably enjoy it more.
I assume this book is somewhat consciously patterned on the very successful book Scale which is similarly named (2 letters different) and which has a very similar theme of taking this general notion and looking at ways it can explain a very broad range of things.
Scale: The Universal Laws of Life and Death in Organisms, Cities and Business
Vs
Shape: The Hidden Geometry of Information, Biology. Strategy, Democracy, and Everything Else
But it is not nearly as good. Scale had its flaws but it was genuinely revelatory, at least to me, and I thought explained a ton about *why* things are as they are (why different species are different sizes and have different lifespans, and why cities are certain distances from each other, to pick a few examples).
Whereas Shape is mostly “isn’t geometry cool? Look at all the things that involve some geometry!” But plenty of the examples seem stretched or forced (eg Covid is like geometry!) and there is some interesting stuff but more like “huh that’s an interesting factoid” and less like it helped shed light on how/why things are the way they are (that’s a high bar of course but I feel like the subtitle was promising it).
Writing is in an easy breezy jokey style that was pleasant at some level but I thought too much.
Scale: The Universal Laws of Life and Death in Organisms, Cities and Business
Vs
Shape: The Hidden Geometry of Information, Biology. Strategy, Democracy, and Everything Else
But it is not nearly as good. Scale had its flaws but it was genuinely revelatory, at least to me, and I thought explained a ton about *why* things are as they are (why different species are different sizes and have different lifespans, and why cities are certain distances from each other, to pick a few examples).
Whereas Shape is mostly “isn’t geometry cool? Look at all the things that involve some geometry!” But plenty of the examples seem stretched or forced (eg Covid is like geometry!) and there is some interesting stuff but more like “huh that’s an interesting factoid” and less like it helped shed light on how/why things are the way they are (that’s a high bar of course but I feel like the subtitle was promising it).
Writing is in an easy breezy jokey style that was pleasant at some level but I thought too much.
Very entertaining, covering a lot of ground and doing so with a reasonable amount of mathematical maturity too. Didn't reach the heights of How Not to be Wrong IMO, but I still liked it quite a bit and would recommend it to anyone curious about geometry or more broadly about how so many topics in mathematics are cleverly related.
It was an okay read.
Honestly, a lot of this book's contents I already knew.
I actually found the book a little basic.
I'm also not a big fan of all the history. Lots of history in this one.
2.8/5
Honestly, a lot of this book's contents I already knew.
I actually found the book a little basic.
I'm also not a big fan of all the history. Lots of history in this one.
2.8/5
adventurous
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
This felt like 5 different books smushed together. Also very math heavy
Loved this book and I would buy it for friends and enemies alike.