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Definitely unnecessary for them to be a part of every educated person’s library. This is a pretty absurd viewpoint. The reality is that there are loads of educa

Definitely unnecessary for them to be a part of every educated person’s library. This is a pretty absurd viewpoint. The reality is that there are loads of educated people who contribute vast amounts to the world without even the most passing familiarity with “modern math”. I also don’t agree with the sentiment of the rest of the post, sorry. If someone is casually or recreationally interested in math, building a comprehensive view of modern math just… isn’t important. If you’re interested in spending more time with math, just do it—don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. There’s no right approach other than the one that makes you happy.

rramadass 3y ago
Hard disagree. These books are not textbooks but Companions thus giving one history, development, concepts, ideas etc. of Mathematics. This is very similar to Encyclopedias/Dictionaries that every family generally has in its "personal library" but just more detailed w.r.t. Mathematics. By "comprehensive" i meant the books are comprehensive and not that one has to study every bit of it. Pick and choose topics/terminologies as you come across them at whatever level you want. You are adding to your education and not necessarily trying to become a "Mathematician". Every "educated person" (STEM or not) with curiosity to understand more about the World (and all-pervasive technologies in particular) has to have some idea of "Modern Maths" at some level. This is why you have so many "popular science and mathematics" books. While these companion books are not "popular maths" books they make a very good reference for when one wants more breadth and depth but not necessarily a full-blown textbook. These are also great "motivators" for students by sparking their curiosity (and perhaps inspire some to become Mathematicians)) since they catalog so much within one pair of covers.

rramadass 3y ago

Hard disagree. These books are not textbooks but Companions thus giving one history, development, concepts, ideas etc. of Mathematics. This is very similar to Encyclopedias/Dictionaries that every family generally has in its "personal library" but just more detailed w.r.t. Mathematics. By "comprehensive" i meant the books are comprehensive and not that one has to study every bit of it. Pick and choose topics/terminologies as you come across them at whatever level you want. You are adding to your education and not necessarily trying to become a "Mathematician". Every "educated person" (STEM or not) with curiosity to understand more about the World (and all-pervasive technologies in particular) has to have some idea of "Modern Maths" at some level. This is why you have so many "popular science and mathematics" books. While these companion books are not "popular maths" books they make a very good reference for when one wants more breadth and depth but not necessarily a full-blown textbook. These are also great "motivators" for students by sparking their curiosity (and perhaps inspire some to become Mathematicians)) since they catalog so much within one pair of covers.