Reviews

The Mathematics of Love: Patterns, Proofs, and the Search for the Ultimate Equation by Hannah Fry

erickabdz's review

3.0

Mathematics is about abstracting away from reality, not about replicating it. And it offers real value in the process. By allowing yourself to view the world from an abstract perspective, you create a language that is uniquely able to capture and describe the patterns and mechanisms that would otherwise remain hidden.

I don't really know what I was looking for. Maybe a more technical version of [b:Modern Romance|23453112|Modern Romance|Aziz Ansari|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1432335014s/23453112.jpg|43014915] (which I loved). I really liked Hannah Fry's [b:Hello World: Being Human in the Age of Algorithms|38212157|Hello World Being Human in the Age of Algorithms|Hannah Fry|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1525784303s/38212157.jpg|59883978], and I was not disappointed by this one; just, it was out of my field and I couldn't appreciate it as much. Instead of trying to "explain" love like Modern Romance did, The Mathematics of Love took instead several equations and explained them using "love" examples. I can say they were very easy to understand and that requires some talent! I really, really liked the explanations of complex math, but I'm afraid I didn't enjoy as much the rest of the book; I found it lacking of the thing I expected the most, and that is the relationship between love and math. As I said, I don't think there's nothing inherently bad in this book, it just wasn't what I was expecting it to be.

What I loved and made me extra sure I'm now a Hannah Fry's fan for life, is her humour and perspective on life. Even if it was very sad not having useful math on same sex relationships, I liked that she had them into account and apologized on behalf of people that worked on the studies. I only hope to have mathematicians like her to work on capturing more aspects of reality in the future!

Overall, a nice book and a 10/10 recommendation if you're interested in math, especially if you are not an expert but still want to learn some fancy equations!