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A review by squirrelfish
The Art of Logic in an Illogical World by Eugenia Cheng
4.0
It's an enjoyable book about logic and math. Yes, that's a little weird. It's approachable although probably one of the hardest to 'read' as an audiobook since my public library doesn't include the pdf supplement and there's diagrams and symbols referenced pretty frequently.
She's got a very British way of bringing humor to the topic, for example when explaining "all mathematicians are awkward" vs "mathematicians exist that are awkward" and how since she doesn't consider herself awkward, she finds this offensive. Either people saying that are saying she is awkward, saying she isn't a mathematician or the most offensive, that she's awkward and not a mathematician. She uses similar language and easily relatable explanations to cover a variety of logical concepts. One of the clearest and most in depth explorations was false negatives vs false positives concept and how this helps people to understand their disagreements over social services and other concepts.
She demonstrates how logic can help you to create a better argument and have a better and slower conversation that might help mutual understanding and forward movement on a topic. I definitely gained clarity on why some of my own arguments had felt ineffectual. She discusses how to use analogies effectively, where they go wrong, and how even that can be useful to furthering mutual understanding. There's a lot of book here and well worth reading if you find yourself regularly having complex discussions, deploring the state of modern conversation, working with math and logic people or just enjoy an excursion into a little explored branch of basic concepts.
Read via audiobook from the SF Public Library and the Libby app for Android.
She's got a very British way of bringing humor to the topic, for example when explaining "all mathematicians are awkward" vs "mathematicians exist that are awkward" and how since she doesn't consider herself awkward, she finds this offensive. Either people saying that are saying she is awkward, saying she isn't a mathematician or the most offensive, that she's awkward and not a mathematician. She uses similar language and easily relatable explanations to cover a variety of logical concepts. One of the clearest and most in depth explorations was false negatives vs false positives concept and how this helps people to understand their disagreements over social services and other concepts.
She demonstrates how logic can help you to create a better argument and have a better and slower conversation that might help mutual understanding and forward movement on a topic. I definitely gained clarity on why some of my own arguments had felt ineffectual. She discusses how to use analogies effectively, where they go wrong, and how even that can be useful to furthering mutual understanding. There's a lot of book here and well worth reading if you find yourself regularly having complex discussions, deploring the state of modern conversation, working with math and logic people or just enjoy an excursion into a little explored branch of basic concepts.
Read via audiobook from the SF Public Library and the Libby app for Android.