7 ms·

The Man Who Loved Only Numbers (1998)

149 points by ttsiodras 12y ago

BinRoo 12y ago
My High School mathematics teacher introduced me to this book 6-7 years ago. Erdös was a hacker in the Mathematician's world. His throughput for establishing hundreds of conjectures and proofs reminds me of collegiate Hackathons in our programming community. This book might make you fall in love with Mathematics, or at least provide an undeniable appreciation for getting shit done.
japhyr 12y ago
There's a children's book called The Boy Who Loved Math: The improbable life of Paul Erdös [0]. I ordered a copy when looking for some books to get my son interested in math beyond counting and simple arithmetic. My son is 3 1/2, and he loves this book. He loves that there was a kid who loved numbers so much he spent his whole life studying them. He loves that he gets to see a boy grow into an adult, who grows into an old man. If you want to share your love of math with a kid, Erdös' story is a great one to share. It's also a great conversation starter about how much or how little to focus on any one thing. I love knowing Erdös' story, but I'm not sure I'd like to be him. [0] - http://www.amazon.com/The-Boy-Who-Loved-Math/dp/1596433078/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=undefined&sr=8-1&keywords=boy++who+loved+numbers http://www.amazon.com/The-Boy-Who-Loved-Math/dp/1596433078/r...
- GuiA 12y ago
  If you're looking for math books for kids, I highly recommend "The Cat in Numberland". It's an illustrated story that touches upon the different kinds of infinities, and even describes Cantor's diagonalization argument in a very friendly, intuitive way. Most adults would also benefit from reading this book. It's out of print, but might be found at your local library or bought used on Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/The-Cat-Numberland-Ivar-Ekeland/dp/081262744X http://www.amazon.com/The-Cat-Numberland-Ivar-Ekeland/dp/081...).
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- hueving 12y ago
  Does it cover the cocaine usage?
  - japhyr 12y ago
    The only substance it mentions is coffee.
teddyh 12y ago
The name is most correctly spelled “Paul Erdős”, not “Paul Erdös”.
- robinhouston 12y ago
  More correctly, certainly; most correctly might be “Erdős Pál”?
  - teddyh 12y ago
    I stand most corrected.
miles 12y ago
There is a documentary about his life as well: N Is a Number: A Portrait of Paul Erdős http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iflQseSSfA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iflQseSSfA
temuze 12y ago
Oh man, I really loved this biography in the 9th grade. It was the first time I was exposed to the concept of mathematics being beautiful. I can't recommend this book enough. Also, I loved Paul Hoffman's biography of the Brazilian aviator Alberto Santos Dumont as well.
grannyg00se 12y ago
I find it fascinating that, according to this story, he could not be productive without amphetamines. "I'd have no ideas, just like an ordinary person. "
- ZoF 12y ago
  Keep in mind that he didn't start amphetamine use until his late 50's.
- cma 12y ago
  I read it as he couldn't be productive during a month of intense amphetamine withdrawal
Gravityloss 12y ago
Anybody notice how beautiful and natural to use the page is? Turns out it's very basic html.
- endgame 12y ago
  Very refreshing.
- arasmussen 12y ago
  I don't have a huge monitor (22 inches) but I found it difficult to read because the lines were so wide. They should set a fixed width for the content and then I'd agree with you.
  - lmm 12y ago
    They shouldn't. If you want to make a wide page narrower you can always resize your browser. If I want to make a narrow page wider, there's no way for me to do that.
    - iopq 12y ago
      If you want to make a narrow page wider, you can open the Inspector and change the width. The argument is the same, and they're both invalid. It takes way too much effort. I'm not resizing a window I use for everything just so I can fullscreen it when I switch to another tab and resize it again when I return.
      - prof_hobart 12y ago
        It takes way too much effort to resize a browser window? It's hardly comparable to going into the source of the page and messing around with values in there. I'm pretty certain my mum, my daughter and pretty much everyone who's ever used a computer can do the former. I doubt that too many can do the latter.
      - lmm 12y ago
        If you have a preferred width for webpages it's presumably the same width for all pages, no? So just keep your browser at that width the whole time.
theflubba 12y ago
He seemed to also love amphetamines.
xg 12y ago
I love that this story is trending on Hacker News. The author, Paul Hoffman, is a close friend. It's nice when good work gets rediscovered here.
- steego 12y ago
  Thank your friend for writing a wonderful biography about a beautiful soul. That book really opened up the world for me by introducing me to a lot of the history and ideas. I'd dropped out of school many years ago and never learned Calculus. After that book, I was inspired to take evening classes and finally learn calculus. As it turned out, I needed to take a few refresher classes before I got to calculus, but I did and I finished up to calc 3. I've been meaning to go back and do some linear algebra and differential equations... Hopefully, I will go back soon. Tell your friend he's doing the SF's work. Then again, maybe he's doing the devil's work if the SF is bent on keeping all the good theorems to himself.
leephillips 12y ago
A couple of years after this article a book about Erdős appeared called My Brain is Open. If you enjoyed this article I highly recommend the book about this fascinating man and his unique life. It even has some good explanations of some of the problems he worked on. The information about amphetamines made an impression. His friends at times tried to discourage him, but he claimed that without them, he could create no mathematics. Given his colossal output, this means that a significant part of the landscape of modern mathematics owes it existence to this drug. How he learned the drug would help him, and how he got his hands on it, and when and how his use of it started, are questions I'm very curious about, but the book doesn't go there.
- Curmudgel 12y ago
  >The information about amphetamines made an impression. His friends at times tried to discourage him, but he claimed that without them, he could create no mathematics. Given his colossal output, this means that a significant part of the landscape of modern mathematics owes it existence to this drug. Erdős was a heavy user of many other stimulants (like coffee), but only started to use antidepressants and then amphetamines in 1971 when he was 58 after his mother died. He was already established as a first rate mathematician (he should have won the Fields Medal), and using amphetamines to work 19 hours a day was his way of coping with the death of his mother. See http://www.untruth.org/~josh/math/Paul%20Erd%F6s%20bio-rev2.pdf http://www.untruth.org/~josh/math/Paul%20Erd%F6s%20bio-rev2.... for more.
cschmidt 12y ago
I loved this book, and can highly recommend it. Take a look at the bottom right picture on his Wikipedia page [1], where he is talking about math to a 10 year old Terence Tao, who is now one of the great minds of his generation. I think that is Erdos in short. He had an influence on so many people across the world. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Erd%C5%91s http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Erd%C5%91s
lkozma 12y ago
If someone is interested, here are two further nice articles about the man, written by a close friend and collaborator: http://www.cs.uchicago.edu/files/tr_authentic/TR-2001-11.ps http://www.cs.uchicago.edu/files/tr_authentic/TR-2001-11.ps http://www.cs.uchicago.edu/files/tr_authentic/TR-2001-03.ps http://www.cs.uchicago.edu/files/tr_authentic/TR-2001-03.ps

149 points by ttsiodras 12y ago

My High School mathematics teacher introduced me to this book 6-7 years ago. Erdös was a hacker in the Mathematician's world. His throughput for establishing hundreds of conjectures and proofs reminds me of collegiate Hackathons in our programming community. This book might make you fall in love with Mathematics, or at least provide an undeniable appreciation for getting shit done.

japhyr 12y ago

There's a children's book called The Boy Who Loved Math: The improbable life of Paul Erdös [0]. I ordered a copy when looking for some books to get my son interested in math beyond counting and simple arithmetic. My son is 3 1/2, and he loves this book. He loves that there was a kid who loved numbers so much he spent his whole life studying them. He loves that he gets to see a boy grow into an adult, who grows into an old man. If you want to share your love of math with a kid, Erdös' story is a great one to share. It's also a great conversation starter about how much or how little to focus on any one thing. I love knowing Erdös' story, but I'm not sure I'd like to be him. [0] - http://www.amazon.com/The-Boy-Who-Loved-Math/dp/1596433078/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=undefined&sr=8-1&keywords=boy++who+loved+numbers http://www.amazon.com/The-Boy-Who-Loved-Math/dp/1596433078/r...

GuiA 12y ago
If you're looking for math books for kids, I highly recommend "The Cat in Numberland". It's an illustrated story that touches upon the different kinds of infinities, and even describes Cantor's diagonalization argument in a very friendly, intuitive way. Most adults would also benefit from reading this book. It's out of print, but might be found at your local library or bought used on Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/The-Cat-Numberland-Ivar-Ekeland/dp/081262744X http://www.amazon.com/The-Cat-Numberland-Ivar-Ekeland/dp/081...).
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
hueving 12y ago
Does it cover the cocaine usage?
- japhyr 12y ago
  The only substance it mentions is coffee.

teddyh 12y ago

The name is most correctly spelled “Paul Erdős”, not “Paul Erdös”.

robinhouston 12y ago
More correctly, certainly; most correctly might be “Erdős Pál”?
- teddyh 12y ago
  I stand most corrected.

miles 12y ago

There is a documentary about his life as well: N Is a Number: A Portrait of Paul Erdős http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iflQseSSfA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iflQseSSfA

temuze 12y ago

Oh man, I really loved this biography in the 9th grade. It was the first time I was exposed to the concept of mathematics being beautiful. I can't recommend this book enough. Also, I loved Paul Hoffman's biography of the Brazilian aviator Alberto Santos Dumont as well.

grannyg00se 12y ago

I find it fascinating that, according to this story, he could not be productive without amphetamines. "I'd have no ideas, just like an ordinary person. "

ZoF 12y ago
Keep in mind that he didn't start amphetamine use until his late 50's.
cma 12y ago
I read it as he couldn't be productive during a month of intense amphetamine withdrawal

Gravityloss 12y ago

Anybody notice how beautiful and natural to use the page is? Turns out it's very basic html.

endgame 12y ago
Very refreshing.
arasmussen 12y ago
I don't have a huge monitor (22 inches) but I found it difficult to read because the lines were so wide. They should set a fixed width for the content and then I'd agree with you.
- lmm 12y ago
  They shouldn't. If you want to make a wide page narrower you can always resize your browser. If I want to make a narrow page wider, there's no way for me to do that.
  - iopq 12y ago
    If you want to make a narrow page wider, you can open the Inspector and change the width. The argument is the same, and they're both invalid. It takes way too much effort. I'm not resizing a window I use for everything just so I can fullscreen it when I switch to another tab and resize it again when I return.
    - prof_hobart 12y ago
      It takes way too much effort to resize a browser window? It's hardly comparable to going into the source of the page and messing around with values in there. I'm pretty certain my mum, my daughter and pretty much everyone who's ever used a computer can do the former. I doubt that too many can do the latter.
    - lmm 12y ago
      If you have a preferred width for webpages it's presumably the same width for all pages, no? So just keep your browser at that width the whole time.

theflubba 12y ago

He seemed to also love amphetamines.

xg 12y ago

I love that this story is trending on Hacker News. The author, Paul Hoffman, is a close friend. It's nice when good work gets rediscovered here.

steego 12y ago
Thank your friend for writing a wonderful biography about a beautiful soul. That book really opened up the world for me by introducing me to a lot of the history and ideas. I'd dropped out of school many years ago and never learned Calculus. After that book, I was inspired to take evening classes and finally learn calculus. As it turned out, I needed to take a few refresher classes before I got to calculus, but I did and I finished up to calc 3. I've been meaning to go back and do some linear algebra and differential equations... Hopefully, I will go back soon. Tell your friend he's doing the SF's work. Then again, maybe he's doing the devil's work if the SF is bent on keeping all the good theorems to himself.

leephillips 12y ago

A couple of years after this article a book about Erdős appeared called My Brain is Open. If you enjoyed this article I highly recommend the book about this fascinating man and his unique life. It even has some good explanations of some of the problems he worked on. The information about amphetamines made an impression. His friends at times tried to discourage him, but he claimed that without them, he could create no mathematics. Given his colossal output, this means that a significant part of the landscape of modern mathematics owes it existence to this drug. How he learned the drug would help him, and how he got his hands on it, and when and how his use of it started, are questions I'm very curious about, but the book doesn't go there.

Curmudgel 12y ago
>The information about amphetamines made an impression. His friends at times tried to discourage him, but he claimed that without them, he could create no mathematics. Given his colossal output, this means that a significant part of the landscape of modern mathematics owes it existence to this drug. Erdős was a heavy user of many other stimulants (like coffee), but only started to use antidepressants and then amphetamines in 1971 when he was 58 after his mother died. He was already established as a first rate mathematician (he should have won the Fields Medal), and using amphetamines to work 19 hours a day was his way of coping with the death of his mother. See http://www.untruth.org/~josh/math/Paul%20Erd%F6s%20bio-rev2.pdf http://www.untruth.org/~josh/math/Paul%20Erd%F6s%20bio-rev2.... for more.

cschmidt 12y ago

I loved this book, and can highly recommend it. Take a look at the bottom right picture on his Wikipedia page [1], where he is talking about math to a 10 year old Terence Tao, who is now one of the great minds of his generation. I think that is Erdos in short. He had an influence on so many people across the world. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Erd%C5%91s http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Erd%C5%91s

lkozma 12y ago

If someone is interested, here are two further nice articles about the man, written by a close friend and collaborator: http://www.cs.uchicago.edu/files/tr_authentic/TR-2001-11.ps http://www.cs.uchicago.edu/files/tr_authentic/TR-2001-11.ps http://www.cs.uchicago.edu/files/tr_authentic/TR-2001-03.ps http://www.cs.uchicago.edu/files/tr_authentic/TR-2001-03.ps