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The Mathematical Pranksters Behind Nicolas Bourbaki

48 points by Hooke 6y ago

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
mvh 6y ago
This nonsense sounds a lot like programming in Coq.
mettamage 6y ago
For people interested in a video about the group behind Nicolas Bourbaki, see: https://ed.ted.com/lessons/the-greatest-mathematician-that-never-lived-pratik-aghor https://ed.ted.com/lessons/the-greatest-mathematician-that-n...
m0llusk 6y ago
The "prankster" angle is a bit of a distraction. This was a huge ongoing effort that those involved took very seriously. It would be more accurate to portray these people as obsessed missionaries who happened to have a sense of flair.
Koshkin 6y ago
We need a thismathematiciandoesnotexist.com. (On a more serious note, I have been wondering if his Éléments de mathématique have aged well and whether or not the treatise is more of historical interest to the mathematicians and students of mathematics today.)
dilippkumar 6y ago
Slightly unrelated: I have no formal math education beyond what was covered in my engineering degree program. I’ve been playing with the idea of picking up Bourbaki’s books and working through them in order. The goal is to learn math for its own sake - I don’t have any ambitions of turning into a mathematician in the future. Is this a good idea? If anyone has done something similar, I’d love to hear your thoughts.
- heinrichf 6y ago
  Commenting as a mathematician who sometimes uses the Bourbaki books as reference for research: this is probably not a good idea. These books have a very dry style and in particular rarely contain detailed examples, motivation for definitions, or intuition for theorems. They are great for reference if you already know the subject, but if you want to learn something, you'd be better off using introductory textbooks for the various fields you're interested in. I'm happy to make recommendations, and you can also look up syllabi for math undergrad at Stanford, Princeton, etc.
- vyraj 6y ago
  It's not a great idea, I would argue that those books have not aged well, if they were even good to begin with. I recall they did not even finish them. Also it depends very much on what exactly are you trying to learn, since mathematics is a gigantic field. If you have some topic I could point you to good resources.
- mam2 6y ago
  No. Just use normal math books. If you are french i can recommend some.

48 points by Hooke 6y ago

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

mvh 6y ago

This nonsense sounds a lot like programming in Coq.

mettamage 6y ago

For people interested in a video about the group behind Nicolas Bourbaki, see: https://ed.ted.com/lessons/the-greatest-mathematician-that-never-lived-pratik-aghor https://ed.ted.com/lessons/the-greatest-mathematician-that-n...

m0llusk 6y ago

The "prankster" angle is a bit of a distraction. This was a huge ongoing effort that those involved took very seriously. It would be more accurate to portray these people as obsessed missionaries who happened to have a sense of flair.

Koshkin 6y ago

We need a thismathematiciandoesnotexist.com. (On a more serious note, I have been wondering if his Éléments de mathématique have aged well and whether or not the treatise is more of historical interest to the mathematicians and students of mathematics today.)

dilippkumar 6y ago

Slightly unrelated: I have no formal math education beyond what was covered in my engineering degree program. I’ve been playing with the idea of picking up Bourbaki’s books and working through them in order. The goal is to learn math for its own sake - I don’t have any ambitions of turning into a mathematician in the future. Is this a good idea? If anyone has done something similar, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

heinrichf 6y ago
Commenting as a mathematician who sometimes uses the Bourbaki books as reference for research: this is probably not a good idea. These books have a very dry style and in particular rarely contain detailed examples, motivation for definitions, or intuition for theorems. They are great for reference if you already know the subject, but if you want to learn something, you'd be better off using introductory textbooks for the various fields you're interested in. I'm happy to make recommendations, and you can also look up syllabi for math undergrad at Stanford, Princeton, etc.
vyraj 6y ago
It's not a great idea, I would argue that those books have not aged well, if they were even good to begin with. I recall they did not even finish them. Also it depends very much on what exactly are you trying to learn, since mathematics is a gigantic field. If you have some topic I could point you to good resources.
mam2 6y ago
No. Just use normal math books. If you are french i can recommend some.