Reddit mentions: The best scientist biographies

My big-picture recommendation would be to learn proofs. Can you read and understand proofs? If asked to justify a proposition, can you produce a coherent, rigorous proof that unambiguously communicates your understanding to others? Learning how to do proofs is, as I mentioned above, its own skillset, one that's a necessary condition for being able to do any kind of serious mathematics.

From my perspective, if you're interested in mathematics, then the specific content—i.e., analysis vs. abstract algebra, combinatorics vs. number theory—is secondary to two things:

1. Are you exploring parts of mathematics that you find interesting and accessible?
   
   After all, you don't want to burn yourself out with something you find boring, nor do you want to overwhelm yourself by trying to bite off more than you can chew (such as EGA).
   
   
2. Are you learning how to do proofs?
   
   Proof-writing is simply the lifeblood of doing mathematics, and the only effective way to learn this skill is by practice.
   
   One book I often recommend to people in your situation is Journey Through Genius: The Great Theorems of Mathematics by William Dunham. It's not really a textbook, but it's still a really interesting introduction to mathematics. It's a bit like a sampler plate, too, since it covers examples from all sorts of topics: number theory, set theory, calculus, and others, as I recall.
   
   One of the challenges of learning how to write proofs is that it can be difficult to do so as an autodidact; it really helps to get feedback from people who can help you sharpen both your thinking and your writing. This next recommendation may be more logistically challenging (or expensive) for you to pursue, but I'd nonetheless recommend that you look into summer math camps whose focus is teaching fluency with proofs. Three in particular include the following:
   
   

• The Ross Mathematics Program at Ohio State University
  
  
• PROMYS at Boston University
  
  
• Hampshire College Summer Studies in Mathematics at Hampshire College
  
  All three have good reputations, but you might have personal preferences that would lead you to prefer one over the other two. All three, as I understand it, use number theory as the entry point to teach you how to think about math abstractly, though Hampshire's program is a bit more eclectic than the number theory-specific focus of the Ross and PROMYS programs. Which program, if any, might be your best fit could turn as much on outside issues like when their sessions are held, how much you'd have to pay (US$3,800–4,000 for program costs alone, from what I could tell), and travel logistics (especially if you'd be an international student), separate from any narrowly mathematical considerations. Oh, and another advantage to attending one of these programs is that you're surrounded by fellow students like you who are really interested in mathematics. There's no way to replicate the value of that from any single textbook, no matter how inspired.
  
  Anyway, that's a starting point. If you have local, regional, or national mathematics competitions—e.g., AMC, ARML, as well as other assorted city, state or provincial, or regional competitions—then that's another good entry point into interesting math. From my experience, the main advantage of math contests is that they expose you early to concepts you might not otherwise see for years, and, again, you get to spend time with fellow math students like you.
  
  Competitions, whether individual or team-based, often have more of a proof-based focus than, say, typical the typical high school curriculum (with the exception of geometry), but "contest math" has the danger of students inferring a distorted picture of what it takes to become a mathematician. Namely: you do not have to be a prodigy in math competitions in order to become a good mathematician, let alone a mathematician. Separately, if there's a Math Circle near you, that might be another valuable resource.
  
  As a high school student who will have already completed Calculus BC before your senior year, you might be able to take college-level classes next year, assuming there's a nearby college or university that has some kind of arrangement with your high school. (Some public school districts even cover your tuition, too.) If that's an option for you, free or not, then I'd recommend coordinating with your school's guidance counselor and a professor in the math department to discuss your options.
  
  Oh, and as an obliquely-related topic: if you have time, now would be a good time to teach yourself how to use LaTeX (or one or more of its siblings) to typeset mathematics. (LaTeX may be useful to you if you pursue other scientific field, too, but it's especially useful in math.) If you're serious in pursuing math going forward, you'll inevitably be using LaTeX, and better to get a head start today on scaling its learning curve.
  
  ---
  
  I'm sure I will think of half a dozen more suggestions an hour from now, but I'll leave things here for now. I hope something above will help, and good luck!

Einstein's books about relativity written by Einstein for the non-expert
-Helps you understand not only his theories well, but piques your interest in science a lot, and improves your way to approach all problems. His essays (in particular The World As I See It, be careful of edited versions on the internet which cut out parts they don't like about God, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Y0_aNvH0Wo) are amazing as well.
http://www.amazon.com/Relativity-The-Special-General-Theory/dp/1619491508/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1347758889&sr=8-3&keywords=einstein+relativity


Middlesex By Jeffrey Eugenides
-A novel, Pulitzer Prize winner in fiction (called the great american epic), will increase your understanding of those with LGBTQ considerations, but mostly an amazing book
http://www.amazon.com/Middlesex-Novel-Oprahs-Book-Club/dp/0312427735/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1347759265&sr=1-1&keywords=middlesex

Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers By Robert Sapolsky
-Entertaining book, will increase your knowledge of a whole lot of things, and increase your interest in psychology and statistics. Also Freakanomics by Levitt/Dubner and Outliers/Blink by Malcolm Gladwell. All good to get your foot in the door to approach the complicated world we live in logically.
http://www.amazon.com/Why-Zebras-Dont-Ulcers-Third/dp/0805073698/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1347759102&sr=1-1&keywords=why+zebras+dont+get+ulcers

Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! by Richard Feynman
--Autobiography of a nobel prize winning physicist, very funny. Will (again) demonstrate how a brilliant person approach the world. Very funny and easy read.
http://www.amazon.com/Surely-Feynman-Adventures-Curious-Character/dp/0393316041/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1347759305&sr=1-1&keywords=Richard+P.+Feynman

This is going to seem like a really strange choice, but it's coming from another 16 year old. I recommend Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman, as it is one of my absolute favorite books. It may only appeal to him if he likes science or engineering, but it's worth a shot regardless.

In a similar vein to the Chronicles of Narnia, may I recommend The Hobbit/ The Lord of the Rings? Both are great stories that he may like. Although they are not the best written books in terms of writing quality (in my opinion), the Inheritence Cycle by Christopher Paolini might appeal for entertainment value. Perhaps a lesser known author that I greatly enjoy is Megan Whalen Turner, author of The Thief, The Queen of Attolia, and The King of Attolia. I just became aware of this book and have thus never read it, but A Conspiracy of Kings by the same author is bound to be good.

Steering away from fantasy, he may also like science fiction. I recommend any Ray Bradbury. Most of his stories are short, so for someone who doesn't read often they are great. My favorite are the Martian Chronicles, but R is for Rocket is also a good compilation. All of the Artemis Fowl series are recommended as well.

If I think of any more, I will certainly edit this post.

Also, you said you want to be an ecologist?

I highly, highly, highly recommend you look at Mark Lewis' site at the University of Alberta. All of his research is in math biology, but he does research areas like invasive species modeling, animal movement modeling, bio-invasion and and ecosystem modeling (e.g rivers, mountains).

He publishes in journals like Theoretical Ecology, Journal of Experimental Biology and American Naturalist. All the links are to papers he's published in those journals.

A word of warning though: just because you have a passion for physics does not necessarily mean you have what it takes to be a researcher in a physics/math related field. You have to love the area you are researching (e.g ecology), but more importantly, you have to love the research PROCESS. As you may have seen from the .pdf links, the papers rely heavily on mathematics. In order to succeed in this area, you have to love solving math problems, writing code, reading journal papers, and solving math problems (yes, I mentioned it twice). If you don't have a passion to do these things, then it will be really hard to succeed.

If I were you, and are really passionate about learning physics, I would find an online resource or textbook that is just above the knowledge you have now, and start studying. I can recommend some resources if you like. If you are truly passionate about physics, start doing problems. Within a year, you will be doing the kind of crazy math you want to do (and be able to apply it to physics problems in no time). If you don't want to work on math problems, then maybe you aren't as passionate as you thought.

Perhaps you can satisfy your desire for physics by reading popular science books (e.g Brian Greene, Stephen Hawking), or becoming a high school science teacher. I can tell you though that what you read in these books, and the actual process of doing science research could not be any more different.

You talk about devotion in an earlier comment. Here's an anecdote about Freeman Dyson from the book Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman

>"He read popular science books about Einstein and relativity and, realizing that he needed to learn a more advanced mathematics than his school taught, sent away to scientific publishers for their catalogs. His mother finally felt that his interest in mathematics was turning into an obsession. He was fifteen and had just spent a Christmas vacation working methodically, from six each morning until ten each evening, through the seven hundred problems of H. T. H. Piaggio's Differential Equations."

Now Dyson was a child prodigy who came from a privileged family, but that's an example of the type of people who "do" math and physics. It makes me wish I hadn't played video games from six each morning until ten each evening playing video games :(

You remind me a bit of myself back when I was trying to figure out what I want to do. Hell, I STILL don't know what I want to do, but I have a bit more experience then I did then when I was an undergrad (all of 2 years ago). So this is like a warning letter to my past self.

Sincerely,

A former mathematical biologist/physicist who discovered is passion for science from reading popular science books, but realized he didn't have what it takes to do research.

I have not read many books explicitly devoted to the history of mathematics, such as those recommended in this math.stackechange post #31058, so I will refrain from recommending any of them. Instead, I'd like to mention a few books that do well discussing aspects of mathematical history, although this is not their main focus.

• Journey Through Genius, by William Dunham. This is a survey of some of math's creative "landmarks" throughout history, as well as the contexts in which they were achieved and the people who worked on them. (Ok, now that I write it out, this is clearly a "history of math" book. The others in this list, not as much...)
  
  
• Four Colors Suffice: How the Map Problem Was Solved, by Robin Wilson. Clear and (relatively) brief description of the development of the proof of the 4 color theorem, from the birth of graph theory to the computer-assisted proof and the discussions that has inspired. The newest edition is now in color, not black & white, and that may not sound like much, but the figures are genuinely awesome and make the concepts so much more understandable. Highly recommended.
  
  
• In Pursuit of the Traveling Salesman: Mathematics at the Limits of Computation, by William J. Cook. I lectured about the TSP briefly in a course I taught this past semester. I read this book in preparation and enjoyed it so thoroughly that I found myself quoting long passages from it in class and sharing many of its examples and figures.
  
  
• How to Lie With Statistics, by Darrell Huff (illustrations by Irving Geis). I recommend this because it's a modern classic. Written in 1954, the ideas are still relevant today. I believe this book should be a requirement in the high school curriculum. (Plus, available as free pdf.)
  
  
• The Emergence of Probability: A Philosophical Study of Early Ideas about Probability, Induction and Statistical Inference, by Ian Hacking. "A philosophical study of the early ideas about probability, induction and statistical inference, covering the period 1650-1705." Ok, this one is really specific and I often found myself rereading sentences 5 times to make sure I understood them which was frustrating. But, its specificity is what makes it so interesting. Worth checking out if it sounds cool, but not for everyone. (FWIW I found a copy at my public library.)
  
  
• Understanding Analysis, by Stephen Abbott. You mentioned you're learning real analysis. I taught a real analysis course this past semester using this book, and it's the one from which I learned the subject myself in college. Abbott writes amazingly well and makes the subject matter clear, inviting, and significant.
  
  
• I also recommend flipping through the volumes in the series The Best Writing on Mathematics. They have been published yearly since 2010. There are bound to be at least a few articles in each volume that will appeal to you. Moreover, they contain extensive lists of references and other recommended readings. I own a copy of each one and am nowhere near completion reading any of them because they always lead me elsewhere!
  
  Hope this is helpful!

>how does he propose to deal with the problem of required specialization?

Unfortunately he passed away in 1997. I don't know exactly what he would say but I can say the following:

Although it's a utopian ideal the act of striving for such a scenario is good in itself, right?

It's ultimately about radical, systemic change involving shifting neoliberalism to a more left-wing/anarchist society. Once this culture changes the supposed need for the banking model goes away.

In this manner, specializing loses its cultural significance. Since we were little kids the question "What do you want to be when you grow up?" has been pummeled into us by a culture that begs us to be a worker for supposed economic growth. But how many people actually go into a field of their major? People switch careers all the time too. My point is that learning how to critically think, like a degree in philosophy, is in fact more valuable and applicable to society and to the self. It would be fantastic if American public schools actually taught logic and critical thinking to all levels of students. Philosophy teaches students to read and think logically and critically, effectively communicate and persuade, form rational arguments, calmly debate, detect logical fallacies, decipher fact from fiction, think scientifically, and understand the scientific method -- which many science majors even fail to grasp.

Meanwhile, the culture of capitalism has permeated throughout so much of society that to be successful has become associated with students submitting to the banking method of education and sacrificing the humanities for STEM fields. The assumption that there are a lack of STEM majors is in fact a myth propagated to get cheap labor so corporations can get higher profits. Even if it were true it isn't that black and white; students can still study humanities and participate in activism while getting STEM degrees. People like Dr. Michael Wesch do a great job spreading Freire's message in his anthropology 101 classroom as well as on YouTube for people to discover on their own.

By getting students addicted to reading, passionate about science (Feynman!), and aware of the true causes of unprecedented levels of inequality resulting in widespread poverty and oppression, students will be inspired and empowered to start hobbies in literature, science, and social justice instead of TV, excessive hedonism, and other soma-like adventures.

There are in fact methods to teach STEM fields in a way congruent with Freirean ideology as depicted in Rethinking Mathematics. Basically, use social problems as examples. Additionally, as Vi Hart illustrates in her videos, mathematics can be taught as an art for students to play with and learn by creating.

I'm also a fan of the Khan Academy's practice of getting students to read outside of the classroom and discuss inside the classroom. This makes the teacher-student time congruent with Freirean ideology while sustaining student information and skill acquisition.

Hiya! I'm a recent physics/computer science graduate and although I can't think of any super cool handmade options off the top of my head, there are some physics books that I find interesting that your boyfriend may enjoy. One solid idea would be just about anything written by Richard Feynman. Reading through the Feynman Lectures is pretty standard for all physicists, though there are free versions online as well. There are a few others, such as The Pleasure of Finding things Out and Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman. There's also a cool graphic novel that recounts the events of his life called Feynman by Ottaviani. If you're not familiar with who this guy is, he is a colorful and concise orator who won a nobel prize in physics. His biggest contributions were in nuclear physics and quantum computation, and his quirks make his explanations of these topics very interesting. The Feynman Lectures are more formal, while his personal books are a mixture of personal experience and explanation.

 
Something else that I typically gift all of my friends who are problem solvers interested in physics is the book Thinking Physics. This book is great for developing some high level intuition in every field of physics (mechanics, optics, thermodynamics, electricity and magnetism, quantum mechanics, etc.). This book is great because it's broken into small digestible sections that build your knowledge as you solve more of the questions (solutions are given).

 
Good luck!

Some advice here for anyone looking for psychedelic therapy.

Mushrooms are still not legal in Oakland, they've just instructed cops not to do anything about possession. So don't expect to see shops selling mushrooms, or therapists giving them to clients. Your best bet is to look for a "psychedelic integration therapist". They won't give you drugs or trip-sit for you, but they specialize in helping clients make sense of psychedelic experiences. Also check out meetups such as those run by the SF Psychedelic Society. Their Psychedelic Therapeutic Use Peer Support Group (there's one that meets in Oakland and one in Petaluma) is great.

There are therapists who practice psychedelic therapy underground. They don't advertise, obviously, so you'll need to make connections to find them. I can't help you there.

You don't need a professional guide to benefit from psychedelics. In fact few therapists have training or experience in this unique modality. More than formal training, it's important to have a trusted trip sitter (ideally someone who's taken psychedelics before), a safe and comfortable setting, and a positive mental state going in. If you want to read trip reports, there are thousands available on Erowid. I recommend the book Psychedelic Psychotherapy by R. Coleman (although I don't endorse everything in it). How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan is a popular book that covers a lot of topics related to the psychedelic renaissance. Also check out /r/PsychedelicTherapy.

Both psilocybin and MDMA are in the FDA approval pipeline and might be legally prescribed for therapy within the next 10 years. You could potentially do this now if you qualify for a clinical trial.

Hopefully we will soon see full legalization and a safe way for people to access these experiences that doesn't require them to label themselves as "sick". There is a ballot measure in Oregon next year which would be a big step in that direction.

Hey! This comment ended up being a lot longer than I anticipated, oops.

My all-time favs of these kinds of books definitely has to be Prime Obsession and Unknown Quantity by John Derbyshire - Prime Obsession covers the history behind one of the most famous unsolved problems in all of math - the Riemann hypothesis, and does it while actually diving into some of the actual theory behind it. Unknown Quantity is quite similar to Prime Obsession, except it's a more general overview of the history of algebra. They're also filled with lots of interesting footnotes. (Ignore his other, more questionable political books.)

In a similar vein, Fermat's Enigma by Simon Singh also does this really well with Fermat's last theorem, an infamously hard problem that remained unsolved until 1995. The rest of his books are also excellent.

All of Ian Stewart's books are great too - my favs from him are Cabinet, Hoard, and Casebook which are each filled with lots of fun mathematical vignettes, stories, and problems, which you can pick or choose at your leisure.

When it comes to fiction, Edwin Abbott's Flatland is a classic parody of Victorian England and a visualization of what a 4th dimension would look like. (This one's in the public domain, too.) Strictly speaking, this doesn't have any equations in it, but you should definitely still read it for a good mental workout!

Lastly, the Math Girls series is a Japanese YA series all about interesting topics like Taylor series, recursive relations, Fermat's last theorem, and Godel's incompleteness theorems. (Yes, really!) Although the 3rd book actually has a pretty decent plot, they're not really that story or character driven. As an interesting and unique mathematical resource though, they're unmatched!

I'm sure there are lots of other great books I've missed, but as a high school student myself, I can say that these were the books that really introduced me to how crazy and interesting upper-level math could be, without getting too over my head. They're all highly recommended.

Good luck in your mathematical adventures, and have fun!

Lots of great recommendations in this thread; I've added a few to my reading list. Here are my suggestions (copied from a previous thread):

• How to Win Friends and Influence People - Everyone with a mother should practice this.
  
• Tao Te Ching (S. Mitchell translation)
  
• Basic Economics: A Common Sense Guide to the Economy - I never cared about economics until after I was done with school, and didn't remember anything from university class. This helped explain a lot of common fallacies many people make.
  
• Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets - As Taleb says in the beginning of the book, anyone from any profession could have written this book, but a financial background makes this much more interesting. Anyone interested in science and what we can learn from the world of past experience should read this. This led to the next book:
  
• How to Live: A Life of Montaigne - A biography of Montaigne, a great skeptic, always curious, interested in what it means to be human. I found I could relate a great deal with the man, as many others have in different ways. The dust-jacket description made it sound like a boring historical overview, but I think the book flowed pretty well and was always interesting.
  
• The Visual Display of Quantitative Information - Anyone that ever creates a slideshow, or attempts to represent data visually should read this book. More than once. I'd say it changed my life.
  
  And, the following two are a look into the lives of two great men that lived in the 20th century; both offer many points worth emulating.
  
  
• Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman
  
• The Trials of J. Robert Oppenheimer (once available in full on PBS website, seems not to be the case now ...)

So, I have some audiobook recommendations for you. In your learning you may have come across a theoretical physicist named Michio Kaku he is an incredibly intelligent person who has an excellent way of phrasing things to keep them understandable as well as an entertaining overall style. He has lots of great video clips on YouTube

I have two of his audiobooks (you could get the regular books instead if you want I suppose) and they are absolutely fantastic to listen to on a long drive (I have a 9 hour drive each way a few times a year to make) or even just chilling in the bathtub for a bit. Any way Physics of the Impossible and Physics of the Future are amazing.

Another person worth getting into if quantum mechanics tickles your fancy is Richard P. Feynman....that there is an entertaining man. Again you can find really old lecture videos he did on YouTube as well as I highly recommend his autobiography (which I again have on audio) is fantastic. Now, a disclaimer about that, there isnt much actual science talk in it but he explains, from his very interesting point of view, how he goes about learning and discovering the world. It may very well help you shape a new understanding of the world around you and grow a greater appreciation for material you are learning. The greatest thing that struck me in the book was when some fellow students of his asked a question about French curves, and he had a very simple and obvious answer but they hadnt put it together....he mused that it meant their knowledge was fragile and not well understood, that they merely could regurgitate a product but did not have a true grasp on what it is that they were doing....Ever since then I have been so frustrated (in a good way) while getting my ME degree because I WANT TO DEEPLY UNDERSTAND. I'm sick of just knowing on the surface and being able to go in and pass the test...I want to build an incredibly solid foundation of understanding.

Also, if you go on YouTube, check out TEDTalks as they are very informative and knowledgeable about many different things not just math and science.

Also, some channels I subscribe to on YouTube are Numberphile, MinutePhysics, Periodic Videos, Sixty Symbols, and VSauce ....oh and look on the sidebar of the VSauce page for other channel recommendations.

In all seriousness, welcome to the fold, its comforting in here.

I've been here periodically but I haven't formally intro'ed myself so I'll do that here:

• I work in IT as an engineering/architecture level (tend to fall more in architecture roles, but do a lot of engineering too).
  
  
• Dream job... well, I might be starting it in a bit over a week. It's 100% remote (globally), working with a tech firm pushing technology in ways that break many of the traditional models, great benefits, amazing people, etc etc. I might post more later, but still seems too good to be true right now. If I had to say something else, probably consulting where I work remote architecting datacenters/cloud deployments and building the migration plans for them. Really jobs that challenge me technically while enabling me to work how I want to work, when I want to work.
  
  
• Likely driven, goal oriented, logical to a fault, and would do well going with my gut more. #EngineeringLife
  
  
• Dream vacation is kind of a misnomer for me, and my dream would be more of a vanlife thing at this point for a bit. Otherwise Australia/NZ
  
  
• I am watching a friends dog right now (about 5 months so far lol) while they look for a house. Need to get my own.
  
  
• I'm really proud of myself for completing a marathon. Crossing that finish line was one of the most rewarding feelings I've ever had on my own. Took 2 years from the goal being set to achieving it. I was in rough shape but would've cried if I had any fluids left to cry with lol
  
  
• Been reading a book about the newest research on psychadelics. It's pretty interesting. I'm a big advocate for ending the war on drugs, and more legalization of psychadelics for medical use (especially in therapeutic settings) if not full recreational. I've never used them, but strongly believe in their use for therapeutic use with minimal risks (I equate it to marijuana in this regard). The book is How to Change Your Mind.
  
  
• Neither. I prefer ginger ale, or stuff like La Croix. Although usually water, tea, and coffee are my go-to's.

• This Easter Island Tiki Tissue Box Holder (hilarious but useful gift to give to friends)
  
• This cellphone stand holder
  
• If ya like cute socks & Totoro, these are super cute & comfortable (they tend to run small though). If you like cats, these cat socks.
  
• These books about women in science: one and two
  
• This fun dream journal
  
• This cute hair headband to use when washing your face. Another one.
  
  Edit: More!
  
  
• This TonyMoly fruit-shaped hand cream set (I love these because I can reuse them for other lotions after they're empty)
  
• This mini stun gun w/ flashlight
  
• This bag/purse hanger/hook thing (keeps your purse/bag off the floor when you're at a restaurant/bathroom/etc. Really handy stuff)

I pretty much only read non-fiction, so I'm all about books that are educational but also interesting :) I'm not sure what your educational background is, so depending on how interested you are in particular subjects, I have many recommendations.

Naked Statistics and Nate Silver's Book are both good!

Feeling Good is THE book on Cognitive Behaviour Therapy.

The Omnivore's Dilemma is good, as is Eating Animals (granted, Eating Animals is aimed at a particular type of eating)

Guns, Germs and Steel is very good.

I also very much enjoyed The Immortal Live of Henrietta Lacks, as well as Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman :)

edit to add: Chris Hadfield's Book which I haven't received yet but it's going to be amazing.

Evolution is just a theory.

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Just like:

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10. Information theory: Claude Shannon, 1948
It’s not exactly the most revolutionary theory, since there really wasn’t a predecessor theory to revolutionize. But Shannon certainly provided the mathematical foundation for a lot of other revolutionary developments involving electronic communication and computer science. Without information theory, bits would still be just for drills.

9. Game theory: John von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern, 1944 (with important embellishments from John Nash in the 1950s)
Developed for economics, where it has had some successes, game theory didn’t quite completely revolutionize that field. But it has been widely adopted by many other social sciences. And evolutionary game theory is an important branch of the study of evolutionary biology. Game theory even applies to everyday activities like poker, football and negotiating for higher pay for bloggers. There is also even such a thing as quantum game theory, which is bound to revolutionize something someday. John Nash won a Nobel Prize for his contributions to game theory, and his troubled life inspired the excellent book A Beautiful Mind. But don’t expect to learn anything about game theory by watching the movie version.                   

8. Oxygen theory of combustion: Antoine Lavoisier, 1770s
Lavoisier did not discover oxygen, but he figured out that it was the gas that combined with substances as they burned. Lavoisier thereby did away with the prevailing phlogiston theory and paved the way for the development of modern chemistry. It was a much safer revolution for Lavoisier than the political one that soon followed in France, so revolutionary that Lavoisier lost his head over it.

7. Plate tectonics: Alfred Wegener, 1912; J. Tuzo Wilson, 1960s
Wegener realized that the continents drifted around as early as 1912. But it wasn’t until the 1960s that scientists put the pieces together in a comprehensive theory of plate tectonics. Wilson, a Canadian geophysicist, was a key contributor of some of the major pieces, while many other researchers also played prominent roles. (Keep in mind that plate tectonics should not be confused with Plates Tectonic, a good name for a revolutionary science-theme restaurant.)

6. Statistical mechanics: James Clerk Maxwell, Ludwig Boltzmann, J. Willard Gibbs, late 19th century
By explaining heat in terms of the statistical behavior of atoms and molecules, statistical mechanics made sense of thermodynamics and also provided strong evidence for the reality of atoms. Besides that, statistical mechanics established the role of probabilistic math in the physical sciences. Modern extensions of statistical mechanics (sometimes now called statistical physics) have been applied to everything from materials science and magnets to traffic jams and voting behavior. And even game theory.

5. Special relativity: Albert Einstein, 1905
In some ways special relativity was not so revolutionary, because it preserved a lot of classical physics. But come on. It merged space with time, matter with energy, made atomic bombs possible and lets you age slower during spaceflight. How revolutionary do you want to get?

4. General relativity: Einstein, 1915
General relativity was much more revolutionary than special relativity, because it ditched Newton’s law of gravity in favor of curved spacetime. And opened scientists’ eyes to the whole history of the expanding universe. And provided science fiction writers with black holes.

3. Quantum theory: Max Planck, Einstein, Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg, Erwin Schrödinger, Max Born, Paul Dirac, 1900–1926
Quantum theory ripped the entire fabric of classical physics to shreds, demolished ordinary notions of the nature of reality, screwed up entire philosophies of cause and effect and revealed peculiarities about nature that nobody, no matter how imaginative, could ever have imagined. Seriously, it’s hard to believe it’s only Number 3.

2. Evolution by natural selection: Charles Darwin, 1859
Darwin showed that the intricate complexity of life and the intricate relationships among life-forms could emerge and survive from natural processes, with no need for a designer or an ark. He opened the human mind to pursuing natural science unimpaired by supernatural prejudices. His theory was so revolutionary that some people still doubt it. They shouldn’t.

1. Heliocentrism: Copernicus, 1543
One of the greatest insights ever, conceived by some ancient Greeks but established only two millennia later: the Earth revolves around the sun (as do other planets). It’s Number 1 because it was the first. Where did you think word revolutionary came from, anyway? (It was only rarely used to mean what it does today before Copernicus put revolutions in the title of his revolutionary book.)

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Stolen from : https://www.sciencenews.org/blog/context/top-10-revolutionary-scientific-theories

For sure!

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I've had several roles in the technology space, from the strategy around a complete digital transformation (ripping out a clients current ERP, CRM, MES, PLM, and HR to implement an API-riddled "modern ecosystem" so those systems could share data), to implementing a continuous improvement framework and sustainment model around a technology implementation. What really got me interested in PM was my first role where I took a custom mobile application from design to deployment while running an Agile team for ~2.5 years. I've been searching for PM jobs on and off for the better part of a year until this opportunity came through the pipeline.

​

As to why I made the switch, I really enjoy working through all the cross-functional portions that comes with launching a new piece of technology. During the lifecycle of a product/feature you have to do strategy (what is the product-market fit), design/development (work with engineers to build a feasible product), and launch work (empower Product Marketing and work with them to find the correct segment/marketing materials). In my experience consulting teams usually focus on one portion of that work, but seeing the lifecycle through falls under the PM because they're there for the long haul.

​

Career aspirations include moving along the PM track and eventually leading a team of PMs. Consulting gave me a strong skillset mostly because I had mentors driving my career development, and providing standards to work towards. One of the most rewarding things I found was returning the favor to the new crop of consultants. Definitely looking to do that in my new position once I get more settled down and we build out the PM team a bit more.

​

Speaking on career aspirations, if money is one of your main motivators for becoming a PM I might suggest a different line of work. I got a small pay raise to $122,000 living in an expensive area, but the compensation trajectory is much higher if you stay in consulting (i.e. assuming everything had gone well this year I was looking at a raise to $145,000 base). In the short term compensation may be similar if you get a PM job with a FAANG company (especially at the MBA level where everyone is competing for top talent), but if you hit partner you leave your PM counterparts in the dust.

​

Getting this role was really luck-based (in addition to practicing for PM interviews for a year). I was initially contacted by a recruiter for this role and ended up hearing nothing after two weeks. So I found someone in the company on LinkedIn and reached out to them (we had gone to the same school). Turns out that person would be my boss and was interested in talking with me! The rest is history (after some harrowing interviews). I guess the moral of the story is if something seems interesting don't stop at the first roadblock.

​

I haven't started the PM role yet so what I like/don't like is TBD, but what I really enjoyed working on the custom mobile application was being "the guy" that everyone comes to with questions/ideas/complaints. One minute I'd be talking with customers about how to use the app, the next I'd be talking with our engineering lead about how I could ever design something so stupidly, and finally I'd get called into the office of the program head to run the numbers with her and see if we were really saving $5 million annually in operations cost. It's stressful, but being the ingress point keeps you constantly on your feet.

​

Did you know that psychedelics were legal in the 50s/60s and used to treat alcoholism/depression? I sure didn't! I've been reading How to Change your Mind and it has been mind-blowing (pun intended) charting the rise and fall of psychedelics in both research and counter-culture terms.

What I like about the DEFCON post is that it is about methodology and goes into detail about the thought process in solving it. Breaks the puzzle into the steps needed to solve.

Maybe that is too much work for something here, but it was a really fun to read and think about both the creator of the puzzle and the person hunting for a solution. Solving the mystery is the most interesting part and what you learn along they way.

Made me think of this book called

"The Pleasure of Finding Things Out" by Richard Feynman

https://www.amazon.com/Pleasure-Finding-Things-Out-Richard/dp/0465023959

Here is a timeline that was posted in r/mrrobot that someone put a lot of work into :

http://alderson4.one/timeline/

*also I think it is helpful for all who want to participate in the game to keep that master list of what was solved as a sticky at the top so as more people come in they have a better idea where to start.

**also also u/u_can_AMA is fantastic at organizing information. You should take a look at his/her posts or maybe enlist in your efforts

There are a fair number of popular level books about mathematics that are definitely interesting and generally not too challenging mathematically. William Dunham is fantastic. His Journey through Genius goes over some of the most important and interesting theorems in the history of mathematics and does a great job of providing context, so you get a feel for the mathematicians involved as well as how the field advanced. His book on Euler is also interesting - though largely because the man is astounding.

The Man who Loved only Numbers is about Erdos, another character from recent history.

Recently I was looking for something that would give me a better perspective on what mathematics was all about and its various parts, and I stumbled on Mathematics by Jan Gullberg. Just got it in the mail today. Looks to be good so far.

As a longtime Christian, I came to a point in my life where I was desperate for a solution to my depression season (7 years in total). After suffering, prayers, therapy, and antidepressants as a last ditch effort I started to explore the possibility of psychedelics. I spent 6 months reading medical studies from Johns Hopkins and NYU as they studied for treatment to those with PTSD and cancer induced depression. Nothing but flying colors and no potential for addiction. I was interested.

I’ve had spiritual and mystical experiences in the past and had no idea what to expect. I had some hesitation because of its legality and the notion of “bad trips.” After time and consideration and the consultation of deeply trusted friends and a therapist I decided to give it a try.

To prepare, I spent time praying and writing my intentions for the time as a sacred space. I made of list of the things I wanted to explore with God including past relationships and trauma. I dimmed the lights and played minimalist music. I was ready. It was 4 hours of pure connectedness and healing to my heart sans an ego to combat the felt experience.

Doctors and scientists say that the experience is pneumatic (or a deeply fear spiritual experience). It certainly was. They also say it’s a very hard experience to describe (but I’ll give it a whirl). I felt known by God. I saw memories, heartbreaks, and traumas flash in my mind. I saw that God was there with me. I felt that he cared more than I ever thought possible. I felt a deep love of God. I felt one with God and it was nothing but beautiful. It felt kin to other spiritual experiences I’ve had at church or out in nature. Now on the other side of it, my depression is gone and my heart is open. I feel more connected to God after feeling disconnected for quite some time.

I believe that I had that experience because of my prayers and intentions. I hear that many people “manifest” their unconscious and emotions that they carry into the time. This is why some people have “bad trips.”

If you decide to proceed, I recommend doing a lot of therapy (preferably somatic based, EMDR) to uncover your trauma and unconscious triggers. Then, do your research. I’ll list a couple links below. Next, find a therapist (ideally the same one) to be with you while you are using. They can guide you back to the right space and keep you focused. That will help ensure a good experience.

Feel free to PM me if you have any other questions.

“How to Change Your Mind” by Michael Pollan
https://www.amazon.com/Change-Your-Mind-Consciousness-Transcendence/dp/1594204225

“The Mind Explained: Psychedelics”
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt10948426/

https://www.google.com/amp/s/tim.blog/2019/09/10/largest-psychedelic-research-center/amp/

https://podcastnotes.org/2019/07/15/psychedelics/

https://hopkinspsychedelic.org/publications

Then video games and anime are your passion, simple as that. If that doesn't feel like "enough" because you're only consuming these things, rather than creating them, give creation a try. Or use them as jumping off points to see if maybe you can expand your passions.

For instance, if video games are super-interesting, maybe the history of video games would be interesting to you as well. One of my best friends from college, Jeff Ryan, used the Venn Diagram of "Liking Video Games" and "Liking to Write" to get a pretty nice payday to write a book about Super Mario (http://www.amazon.com/Super-Mario-Nintendo-Conquered-America/dp/1591845637).

The point is, if you love something, you can make that thing the center of your life in a constructive way.

NOTE: there's a difference between "love" and "addiction". A lot of people have porn addictions, which puts them in front of the computer, masturbating 4 hours a day. Paul Thomas Anderson loved porn and used it to create "Boogie Nights". I would take a long look at what I was falling into and try to decide if the thing I find myself doing is a distraction from life or a reason for being alive...

yes in the physics community Feynmans like a god

He's well known for many things in popular culture. He was on the committee that investigated the space shuttle Challenger disaster and on live TV he showed that the o-rings lost their elasticity in the cold by simply dumping the o-rings in ice water.

He was also an artist and a very good bongo drum player. He was instrumental in popularizing Tuvan throat-singing in the West. Back Tuva Future https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00000GC1U/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_H01vDb1JENG4N

He was perhaps the father of nanotechnology. He wrote a very famous paper and presented at a conference called "there's plenty of room at the bottom" it sparked people's interest and imagination in the field of nanotechnology.

But of course the most interesting aspect to Feynman was his combination of genius, intellectual honesty, and curiosity. One book that I couldn't recommend highly enough is the one I mentioned earlier
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (Adventures of a Curious Character) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0393316041/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_D31vDbF44F7T1

Along with some really great critiques of modern science such as "Cargo cult science"

and of course if you like physics he wrote a great book called "six easy pieces" along with a three-volume set called the 'Feynman lectures of physics"

I did a double major Electrical Engineering / Physics at the undergrad, and did advanced study in quantum mechanics. Look at the Nova series The Elegant Universe. The book is also very well written and highly recommended. Brian Greene is very good at explaining the flavor of advanced physics.

Honestly, I would learn this level of physics, and be satisfied. You can dive deeper and learn proofs and equations, but that won't really enrich your understanding. At a certain point, most of what you do are looking at is just equations that describe things that are true, because the numbers tell you are, but don't have any macro correlation.

Here is an example: it's neat to know what the impact of something "spinning" one way means in terms of what other elementary particles it can pair up with, but this doesn't help you understand quantum mechanics. Spin has no meaning at these sizes, yet they have angular momentum. Why? Because the numbers tell us it does.

If you do want to dive deeper in to physics, like people have recommended, the Feynman lectures are the go to standard for Physics texts. In fact, "surely you're joking, mr. feynman" is a great biography of an interesting man.

So TL;DR - you can get a good understanding of quantum mechanics at a high level, but diving deeper won't really teach you much more at a fundamental level.

This was taken from a comment from when this was first submitted:

>The saddest such letter I have read is Richard Feyman's letter to his late wife two years after her death (published in Perfectly Reasonable Deviations from the Beaten Track):
Arline Feynman died on June 16, 1945. The paper on which this letter was written is well worn, and it appears as though he reread it often.

>>To Arline Feynman, October 17, 1946

>>D'Arline,

>>I adore you, sweetheart ... It is such a terribly long time since I last wrote to you — almost two years but I know you'll excuse me because you understand how I am, stubborn and realistic; and I thought there was no sense to writing. But now I know my darling wife that it is right to do what I have delayed in doing, and what I have done so much in the past. I want to tell you I love you.

>>I find it hard to understand in my mind what it means to love you after you are dead — but I still want to comfort and take care of you — and I want you to love me and care for me. I want to have problems to discuss with you — I want to do little projects with you. I never thought until just now that we can do that. What should we do. We started to learn to make clothes together — or learn Chinese — or getting a movie projector.

>>Can't I do something now? No. I am alone without you and you were the "idea-woman" and general instigator of all our wild adventures. When you were sick you worried because you could not give me something that you wanted to and thought I needed. You needn't have worried.

>>Just as I told you then there was no real need because I loved you in so many ways so much. And now it is clearly even more true — you can give me nothing now yet I love you so that you stand in my way of loving anyone else — but I want to stand there.

>>I'll bet that you are surprised that I don't even have a girlfriend after two years. But you can't help it, darling, nor can I — I don't understand it, for I have met many girls ... and I don't want to remain alone — but in two or three meetings they all seem ashes. You only are left to me. You are real.

>>My darling wife, I do adore you. I love my wife. My wife is dead,

>>Rich.

>>PS Please excuse my not mailing this — but I don't know your new address.

The saddest such letter I have read is Richard Feyman's letter to his late wife two years after her death (published in Perfectly Reasonable Deviations from the Beaten Track):

>Arline Feynman died on June 16, 1945. The paper on which this letter was written is well worn, and it appears as though he reread it often.

>To Arline Feynman, October 17, 1946

>D'Arline,

>I adore you, sweetheart ... It is such a terribly long time since I last wrote to you — almost two years but I know you'll excuse me because you understand how I am, stubborn and realistic; and I thought there was no sense to writing. But now I know my darling wife that it is right to do what I have delayed in doing, and what I have done so much in the past. I want to tell you I love you.

>I find it hard to understand in my mind what it means to love you after you are dead — but I still want to comfort and take care of you — and I want you to love me and care for me. I want to have problems to discuss with you — I want to do little projects with you. I never thought until just now that we can do that. What should we do. We started to learn to make clothes together — or learn Chinese — or getting a movie projector.

>Can't I do something now? No. I am alone without you and you were the "idea-woman" and general instigator of all our wild adventures. When you were sick you worried because you could not give me something that you wanted to and thought I needed. You needn't have worried.

>Just as I told you then there was no real need because I loved you in so many ways so much. And now it is clearly even more true — you can give me nothing now yet I love you so that you stand in my way of loving anyone else — but I want to stand there.

>I'll bet that you are surprised that I don't even have a girlfriend after two years. But you can't help it, darling, nor can I — I don't understand it, for I have met many girls ... and I don't want to remain alone — but in two or three meetings they all seem ashes. You only are left to me. You are real.

>My darling wife, I do adore you. I love my wife. My wife is dead,

>Rich.

>PS Please excuse my not mailing this — but I don't know your new address.

I highly recommend "Journey Through Genius" by William Dunham for people with an interest in math, but maybe with not much background yet.

Each chapter talks about one of the great theorems in math, starting with the ancient Greeks and ending with Cantor. The chapter explains some history behind the problem, and provides motivation for why the question is interesting. Then it actually presents a proof. It's a great way of getting exposure to new ideas, proofs, and is a nice survey of a wide range of math. Plus, it's well-written!

Personally, I don't think learning something like, say, category theory makes sense unless you've had some more higher math that will provide examples of where category theory is useful. I love abstraction as much as the next mathematician, but I've learned that it's usually useless unless you have a set of examples that help you understand the abstraction.

Awesome! I recommend taking whatever physics classes your High School offers along with as much math as possible. I also suggest taking advantage of the website Kahn Acadamy. Another good site for asking questions and learning more is http://www.physicsforums.com/ it's very active and you can learn a lot there. For keeping up with physics and science, I like the site http://phys.org/

A good book I would suggest starting with, while non-technical, but is an interesting read is Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynmann. Another good resource is the Feynmann Lectures on Physics, you can read them for free online now here: http://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/

And another awesome resource would be the Physics teachers at your school. Talk to them about what your interested in and they might be able to talk to you more about it!

If your high school doesn't have what your looking for you could also look into taking classes at your local community college as well.

Not a book, but I can share a few videos that I've found inspirational during some rough times with mathematics...

Fermat's Last Theorem -- This is a documentary on Andrew Wiles' proof of Fermat's last theorem. It's also probably the most emotional video I've ever watched about math. Highly recommended.

Fractals -- This is a neat NOVA documentary on fractals. In particular, it provides some inspiring history regarding Mandelbrot's discovery and journey with this subject.

Everything is relative, Mr. Poincare -- Another exceptional and inspiring documentary.

The only book I can recommend is Journey Through Genius by William Dunham, which provides an excellent treatise on the history of mathematics. From the book description

> Dunham places each theorem within its historical context and explores the very human and often turbulent life of the creator — from Archimedes, the absentminded theoretician whose absorption in his work often precluded eating or bathing, to Gerolamo Cardano, the sixteenth-century mathematician whose accomplishments flourished despite a bizarre array of misadventures, to the paranoid genius of modern times, Georg Cantor. He also provides step-by-step proofs for the theorems, each easily accessible to readers with no more than a knowledge of high school mathematics.

It's a very good read, and not too gigantic. Good wishes your way, mate.

[A snazzy Harry potter water bottle!] (https://www.amazon.com/Silver-Buffalo-HP1664-Gryffindor-20-Ounces/dp/B0164809P2/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1527744053&sr=8-3&keywords=harry+potter+waterbottle)

[A gorgeous floral suit!] (https://www.amazon.com/ADOME-Swimwear-Womens-Monokini-Swimsuits-Bathing/dp/B07CYWBBK1/ref=sr_1_76_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1527744383&sr=8-76-spons&keywords=floral+swim)

[ I think everyone needs a pizza beach towel!] (https://www.amazon.com/WANTU-Microfiber-Beach-Towel-Multifunctional/dp/B07BF5MLQL/ref=sr_1_3_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1527744465&sr=8-3-spons&keywords=pizza+beach+towel&psc=1)

[ A rubber duck for your pool sounds amazing!] (https://www.amazon.com/GAME-Giant-Derby-Inflatable-Float/dp/B0196KKY6E/ref=sr_1_18?ie=UTF8&qid=1527744556&sr=8-18&keywords=pool+float)

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[ A floral beach bag] (
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[ I think that this palm tree makes great summer decor!] (https://www.amazon.com/Lightshare-Lights-Decoration-Christmas-Nativity/dp/B0123SJ1SI/ref=sr_1_10?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1527745407&sr=1-10&keywords=summer+outdoor+decor)

[I'd love to give my grandfather this tumbler! He has always been there for me and is one of the kindest people you will ever meet.] (https://www.amazon.com/Tervis-1168985-Definition-Tumbler-Clear/dp/B00RVXNAWO/ref=sr_1_5?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1527745530&sr=1-5&keywords=dad+tervis+tumbler)

[A 'murica hat!] (https://www.amazon.com/MURICA-FOURTH-JULY-USA-america/dp/B00J9TTE46/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1527745682&sr=8-2&keywords=murica)

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[ Rainy days are the best to learn new hobbies!] (
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Yes, they do! On average at least. Intuitively, as you get bigger and bigger there are more and more primes with which to make numbers, so the need for them gets less and less. This is answered by the Prime Number Theorem which says that (on average) the number of primes less than the number x is approximately x/log(x). Proving this was a triumph of 19th century mathematics.

Now, this graph of x/log(x) is very smooth and nice, so it only approximates where primes will be. It's not a guarantee. Imagine the primes as a crowd of people in an airport terminal. The crowd is, in general, flowing nicely from the ticket agents to the gate and this appears to be very nice when we look at it from high above. But when we get closer, we see some people walking from the ticket agents to the coffee shop, against the flow. Some kids are running in circles, which is not in the "nice flow" prediction. These fluctuations were not predicted by our model.

So even if primes obey the law x/log(x) overall, there are still fluctuations against this law. While the overall trend is for primes to get infinitely far apart we predict there are infinitely many primes that are right next to each other, totally against the flow. This is the Twin Prime Conjecture. We have recently proved that there are infinitely many pairs of primes, both of which are separated by only ~600 numbers. This was a huge deal and was done only within the last year or so, but we want to get that number down to 2.

We can also ask: "Do these fluctuations affect the overall flow in a significant way, or are they mostly isolated events that don't mess up the Prime Number Theorem approximation too much?" This is the content of the Riemann Hypothesis. If the Prime Number Theorem says that primes are somewhat ordered nicely, then the Riemann Hypothesis says that the primes are ordered as nicely as they can possibly get. That would mean that even though there are variations to the x/log(x) approximation, these fluctuations do not mess things up that bad.

Now, when looking for large primes, we generally look at expressions like 2^(n)-1 because we have fast algorithms to check if these guys are prime. But, in general, most primes do not look like that, they're just very nice numbers that we can check the primatlity of. We do not even know if there are infinitely many primes of the form 2^(n)-1, called Mersenne Primes so we could have already found them all. But we are pretty convinced there are infinitely many, so we're not too worried.

I don't know what your background is, but I've heard that the Prime Obsession is a good layperson book on this (though I haven't read it). If you have math background in complex analysis and abstract algebra, then you could look Apostol's Introduction to Analytic Number Theory.

You said it yourself man, cannabis elevates mood. Which is how it's used to treat PTSD, it stabilizes your mood and makes you happier and more compassionate.

I think plant medicines as a whole can be used interchangeably in some cases, which is a great benefit compared to specific and targeted pharmaceuticals you're probably used to that only treat one thing and one thing only. Not everyone wants to go through an intense psilocybin experience, some people might not be mentally ready, or they may have tried it and might be in the small population of people that psilocybin doesn't work for. Cannabis isn't just a one trick pony, and neither are many other plant medicines & drugs that are soon to be legalized. MDMA has also shown great promise I believe. MAPS is actually about to go through a 3rd wave of trials soon for psilocybin and if it performs well, it will then go straight to the FDA and probably be legalized. MDMA is expected to be legal sooner than that for treatments. Michael Pollan talks about this on a recent podcast with Joe Rogan which is here, as well as in his recently released book that can be found here, also check out his Twitter as he Tweets out research and news on drug studies often. Trump could also soon be signing a bill that would allow terminally ill patients to try cannabis, LSD, MDMA, or psilocybin to alleviate their symptoms, article here. Interesting things on the horizon for sure.

Pretty much any math book I'd recommend would be too technical for someone who hasn't studied the subject formally, but I will highly recommend A Beautiful Mind by Sylvia Nasar. Of course the Ron Howard / Russell Crowe movie is very good in its own right, but the book by Nasar really takes you deeply into the mind of a mathematician who won the Nobel Prize in Economics (Game Theory) while living with a serious mental illness.

I suggest this book for anyone interested in mathematics, economics, psychology, or just anyone who would enjoy a really well-written biography.

First off, read this book! Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! Richard Feynman made some really important discoveries in the particle physics world and I think it's cool (and hilarious) to look at the way he thinks about everything, not physics alone.

Secondly, make sure you understand math. Don't kill yourself over it, just remember "physics is to mathematics as sex is to masturbation."

Third, enjoy what you're doing. It's hard to get a lot out of a class or a book if you are just struggling to get through each assignment. Try to make it fun for yourself.
Also, making friends in the field and study groups help a lot. I firmly believe that the classroom is not the ideal place to learn physics. It is a science about discovery and understanding the world around you. Even though other people have done so before, it really helps to sit around with a few people at about the same level as you and help each other find solutions. There's a good reason these guys smoked pipes. It's simply the perfect thing to do while sitting around with others thinking.

Overall, be sure to enjoy yourself. Being a physics major is tough, no doubt, but it's also super interesting and a ton of fun!

These are castings of species you can find in the US. Somewhere there are probably better quality photos but these are the best I could find. I saw these in a presentation given by Dr Tschinkel and he had a bunch of really awesome high quality shots that might not have made it to the web.

I actually met him and Dr. Holldobler (mentioned in the linked video) one summer in Arizona.

For anyone interested the book Journey to the Ants by EO Wilson and Holldobler is the laymen version of their seminal book The Ants... which is pretty much the bible for anyone that studies ants.

Interesting factiod: You can find some interesting species just about any place in the world... in the US there are about 400+ species including army ants, fungus growers, slave making ants, etc.

Stop second-guessing your choice of major. Keep your eyes on what you actually want, and remember that the steps along the way will all build there eventually. Check in on your plans when you're picking classes each semester, to make sure you're still on course and still want that ultimate goal. The REU and some lab time will all help.

Try reading some science-related books, not actual science but stuff about scientists themselves or stories about specific scientific discoveries. Like The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Double Helix, Eighth Day of Creation, The Disappearing Spoon, and Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman. Your school should have copies of most of them, and they aren't textbook-heavy (though not quite as light as fiction novels).

Don't forget to stay at least a little rounded. Someone on just about every recruitment weekend for grad school will ask about your hobbies. I'm pretty sure they're required to do so :) Or you'll discover you and your interviewer both do ceramics and can chat about that, leaving a stronger impression than if you were yet another person talking about science. It's good to be done with the requirements, but make sure you keep up something outside your major, even if it's just ultimate frisbee.

Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman

> A series of anecdotes shouldn't by rights add up to an autobiography, but that's just one of the many pieces of received wisdom that Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman (1918-88) cheerfully ignores in his engagingly eccentric book, a bestseller ever since its initial publication in 1985. Fiercely independent (read the chapter entitled "Judging Books by Their Covers"), intolerant of stupidity even when it comes packaged as high intellectualism (check out "Is Electricity Fire?"), unafraid to offend (see "You Just Ask Them?"), Feynman informs by entertaining. It's possible to enjoy Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman simply as a bunch of hilarious yarns with the smart-alecky author as know-it-all hero. At some point, however, attentive readers realize that underneath all the merriment simmers a running commentary on what constitutes authentic knowledge: learning by understanding, not by rote; refusal to give up on seemingly insoluble problems; and total disrespect for fancy ideas that have no grounding in the real world. Feynman himself had all these qualities in spades, and they come through with vigor and verve in his no-bull prose. No wonder his students--and readers around the world--adored him. --Wendy Smith

https://www.amazon.com/Surely-Feynman-Adventures-Curious-Character/dp/0393316041

> The fact that you've convinced yourself that people can't have decent vocabularies without the help of Google says a lot about you.

Nope. Not people. Just you. See, I looked at your previous posts before calling you out. You're as pretentious as they come. You use words that do not belong to daily vocab and are clear indicators of being synonym look ups. This isn't an assumption. It's an observation. You're a pseudo.

>Once again, these aren't some esoteric words. They're common. You gotta move past comics and children's book like Harry Potter.

This is why it's hard to take you seriously. Your analysis of me is entirely based on an assumption you made. No indicators anywhere of my reading habits. Still, I humored you in my previous response. I thought it would be fun to take you down a notch or two. But now you're just boring me. In any case, Harry Potter is a classic. I think I might up pick up the series once again. You gave me the hankering. Thanks!

> I've seen the channels you've mentioned. But they're not a valid substitute for actual textbooks. Watching a 30-minute video isn't commensurate with working through a textbook with exercises and practice problems.

Do you comprehend my entire argument at all? Forget that. Did you even read my responses in their entirety? Or are you just debating for the heck of it? When did I say youtube videos are substitute for actual textbooks? They're not. But they are excellent diving points. Also, there are plenty of youtube videos that deep dive into topics eloquently and comprehensibly. Your silly stance that youtube videos are sciolistic (cue eye roll for the synonym lookup) and vapid is what got me going. That and the fact that you really do sound like a miserable, failed college professor.

My final, unrequited advice to you is this - get off your high horse. If you're trying to put a point across and you use vocabulary that is incomprehensible by a majority, then you've failed. Look up Richard Feynman's technique and use it not just to learn but also to put your point across. The TL;DR version of this technique is this - use simple words. Also, while you're at it, pick up Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman. - a great book about the most glorious human being to have ever lived! Atleast in my opinion. Fair warning, it uses vocabulary more suited for simple folks like me. :)

I really think you should read How to Change Your Mind. It dives into the details of how psychedelics help with depression and you'll probably be able to relate to some of it. Turns out most who use it for depression find that it doesn't last long term for them either, but does provide a break usually at least for a few months. To me that seems like a good enough jumping point to be able to reconnect with emotions. Michael does a much better job of analyzing and theorizing the functions and possibilities.

I truly wish you had the ability to use this medicine with an experienced therapist who maybe could've made the experience more enjoyable and rewarding.

Thanks. I'm about 75% of the way through the article and I have faaaaaar too many tabs open so I'm commenting now. I bookmarked Peter Kropotkin's Wikipedia page to read later.

I disagree with some of the axioms of the author but I'm certain I'll be thinking about the text. I read a biography of Richard Feynman once: Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman by James Gleick.

He often went back to first principles. He'd do things that no average genius would - like review freshman physics. I don't know if that helped keep him a wizard amongst geniuses but I think he did it for a kind of "play".

My takeaway of that section was that reviewing what you know might help you to more intuitively grok things you aren't familiar with. Right now I find it hard to accept that insects or lobster can play. But if I consider a random creature like a bird - I think it's clear that ravens and crows play. They are very intelligent.

Maybe humble birds like sparrows do too. We just haven't been clever enough to notice.

Well I think you might find it easier if you dispensed with all those categories (economics, gender, law, etc.). They are useful in terms of specialization, but unless you're doing a specialization, I find it most helpful to try to get to the bottom of things and ignore categories. Most of these overlap.

The great book that taught me to think this way, and after which a lot more in the world started to make sense was Surely you're joking Mr Feynman. Essentially the difference is between trying to get it right (makes everything overwhelming/confusing) vs understanding it (looking for good explanations).

The beginning of infinity by David Deutsch has something similar.

I know this may seem totally irrellevant, but for me this was the thing that removed that feeling of being overwhelmed by knowledge forever.

That said, I am too consuming incredible amounts of JP. Probably an average of.. wow, maybe 2 hours per day since I first discovered him 5 months ago or so.

Here's my list of the classics:

General Computing

• But How Do It Know? - The Basic Principles of Computers for Everyone
  
  
• The Elements of Computing Systems: Building a Modern Computer from First Principles
  
  
• Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software
  
  
• Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
  
  Computer Science
  
  
• The New Turing Omnibus: Sixty-Six Excursions in Computer Science
  
  
• Compilers: Principles, Techniques, and Tools, 2nd Edition (aka The Dragon Book)
  
  
• The Art of Computer Programming
  
  
• Algorithms, 4th Edition
  
  
• Introduction to Algorithms, 3rd Edition (aka CLRS)
  
  
• Essential Algorithms: A Practical Approach to Computer Algorithms Using Python and C#, 2nd Edition
  
  
• Grokking Algorithms: An Illustrated Guide for Programmers and Other Curious People
  
  
• Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, 2nd Edition (aka SICP, available for free on the MIT website)
  
  
• Discrete Mathematics with Applications, 4th Edition
  
  Software Development
  
  
• Designing Data-Intensive Applications: The Big Ideas Behind Reliable, Scalable, and Maintainable Systems by Martin Kleppmann
  
  
• Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software (aka The Gang of Four)
  
  
• Think Like a Programmer: An Introduction to Creative Problem Solving
  
  
• The Pragmatic Programmer: your journey to mastery, 20th Anniversary Edition, 2nd Edition
  
  
• The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering
  
  
• Code Complete: A Practical Handbook of Software Construction, 2nd Edition
  
  
• The Design of Everyday Things
  
  
• Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship
  
  
• Programming Pearls, 2nd Edition
  
  
• Soft Skills: The Software Developer's Life Manual
  
  
• Hello, Startup: A Programmer's Guide to Building Products, Technologies, and Teams
  
  
• Hacker's Delight, 2nd Edition
  
  
• Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams, 3rd Edition
  
  Case Studies
  
  
• The Soul of a New Machine
  
  
• Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture
  
  
• Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution
  
  
• Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins Of The Internet
  
  
• Fire in the Valley: The Birth and Death of the Personal Computer, 3rd Edition
  
  Employment
  
  
• Cracking the Coding Interview: 189 Programming Questions and Solutions, 6th Edition
  
  
• The Complete Software Developer's Career Guide: How to Learn Programming Languages Quickly, Ace Your Programming Interview, and Land Your Software Developer Dream Job
  
  
• The Self-Taught Programmer: The Definitive Guide to Programming Professionally
  
  
• The Passionate Programmer: Creating a Remarkable Career in Software Development
  
  Language-Specific
  
  C
  
  
• The C Programming Language, 2nd Edition
  
  Python
  
  
• Automate the Boring Stuff with Python: Practical Programming for Total Beginners, 2nd Edition
  
  
• Python Crash Course: A Hands-On, Project-Based Introduction to Programming
  
  
• Python Programming: An Introduction to Computer Science, 3rd Edition
  
  
• Effective Python: 59 Specific Ways to Write Better Python
  
  C#
  
  
• The C# Player's Guide, 3rd Edition
  
  C++
  
  
• The C++ Programming Language, 4th Edition
  
  
• Starting Out with C++: from Control Structures to Objects, 9th Edition
  
  Java
  
  
• Introduction to Java Programming and Data Structures: Comprehensive Version, 11th Edition
  
  
• [Java: A Beginner's Guide](https://www.amazon.com/Java-Beginners-Seventh-Herbert-Schildt/dp/1259589315/, 7th Edition)
  
  
• Java: The Complete Reference, 11th Edition
  
  
• Core Java Volume I - Fundamentals, 11th Edition
  
  
• Starting Out with Java: From Control Structures through Objects, 6th Edition
  
  
• Effective Java, 3rd Edition
  
  Linux Shell Scripts
  
  
• The Linux Command Line: A Complete Introduction, 2nd Edition
  
  
• Wicked Cool Shell Scripts: 101 Scripts for Linux, OS X, and UNIX Systems, 2nd Edition
  
  
• Linux Command Line and Shell Scripting Bible
  
  
• Mastering Linux Shell Scripting
  
  Web Development
  
  
• Learning Web Design: A Beginner's Guide to HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Web Graphics, 5th Edition
  
  
• Eloquent JavaScript: A Modern Introduction to Programming, 3rd Edition (also available for free on the author's website)
  
  
• JavaScript and JQuery: Interactive Front-End Web Development
  
  
• HTML and CSS: Design and Build Websites
  
  
• You Don't Know JS: Up & Going
  
  Ruby and Rails
  
  
• Ruby on Rails Tutorial: Learn Web Development with Rails, 4th Edition (Note: this book is somewhat out of date compared to the live version on the author's website.)
  
  
• The Well Grounded Rubyist, 3rd Edition
  
  
• Practical Object-Oriented Design in Ruby: An Agile Primer
  
  
• Agile Web Development with Rails 5.1
  
  
• Programming Ruby 1.9 & 2.0: The Pragmatic Programmers' Guide, 4th Edition
  
  
• Eloquent Ruby
  
  Assembly
  
  
• Assembly Language for x86 Processors, 8th Edition

And he became a notorious woman chaser/misogynist afterwards. Not that anyone particularly minded or cared.

Losing the love of his life embittered him but I think physics became his true love. Watching his lectures even in this day and age is marvelous, and I highly recommend it.

Sauce: Gleick's biography (he's an amazing biographer) and A set of lectures from the University of Auckland (NZ.) Also look up Project Tuva for older MIT lectures.

A biography about Richard Feynman. A truly remarkable man, very special but inspiring. Unlike any other physicist I know, and because he was so different, the biography is a graphic novel!

How friggin cool is that? Found it in a library earlier this year, had to give it to my father as a gift, since he loves biographies and comics!

I think that you should look into Richard Feynman. This man was a truly influential member of the scientific community. There are several books about his life and findings. I think that all engineers should envy his lust for balance.

I think that the most interesting thing about him is his passion for his children. They were truly the center of what he focused on and that intellectual curiosity is reflected in his offspring.

I don't know what else I need to write to convince you to read books about his life; however, I will claim that learning about this man has made me into a better engineer, son, and SO. Just thinking about this book gives me goosebumps because I appreciated it so much.

There are some notable/deserving winners of the Nobel Prize, like Richard Feynman (shared Physics Nobel award in 1965).

Feynman was brilliant in many ways! He was also a great practical joker.

His book, Surely Your Joking, Mr. Feynman: Adventures of a Curious Character is worth a read!

Feynman had a varied career from working on the Manhattan Project during WW2 to determining the cause of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster (1986)

I am on mobile but I was gifted 2 books that I think are great for her! One book was about 50 amazing women scientists. The other was called "Bad Girls from History" which tells the stories of courageous, rebellious, yet influential women. I'll try to come back to my comment later today and add the proper titles.


EDIT: Added proper book titles:

1. Women in Science: 50 Fearless Pioneers Who Changed the World
   
   
2. Bad Girls Throughout History: 100 Remarkable Women Who Changed the World

I got your list right here:

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho - great story about finding your way in life, destiny, etc. One of my personal favorites and a real life changer for me personally (read it when I was 14, very impressionable)

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominigue Bauby - memoirs of a magazine editor who has a stroke and goes from being a hot shot playboy to being paralyzed. He loses all motor function and the whole book is written by him blinking out the letters. Despite it all he has a razor wit and such a positive outlook it really makes you think about your own life and what is important to appreciate.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig - kind of an interesting book that gives you a historical breakdown of philosophy all through a somewhat biographical story about a motorcycle trip with his son. Has some really insightful views on what is quality and what is the point of education. Highly recommend for anyone just starting college.

Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman by Richard P Feynman - Autobiography/memoir of one of the greatest minds to ever live. From learning how to pick locks while working on the manhattan project, experimenting with acid, and learning the bongos. Dr. Feynman has such a passion for life, science, and learning it's contagious. Seriously, just see how excited he gets about rubberbands.

Before you commit to it, read Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software by Charles Petzold. If it fires your imagination then computer programming may be is for you.

Another one to read is Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder which is much older, but easily readable by non coders. Again if it fires your imagination then coding might be for you.

CS can lead to many many careers - many more than when I did my degree (80s), but you need to understand where the world of computers is moving to and where you want to be in that space.

If you're just looking for more money, then perhaps you shouldn't be looking at coding as a panacea. Don't get me wrong, coding is fantastic thing to do - if it floats your boat. However it's main problem is that you constantly have to keep yourself up to date with new technologies and techniques. This requires you to have the passion and self motivation to do that training.

I'm been coding since I was 11 (1978) and have seen many many aspects of the industry and the trade. I will concur with some of the comments here that indicate that the degree itself isn't the answer, but could be part of it.

Either whatever you decide - good luck!

> If done right, science is science.

THAT'S THE KEY. SOCIOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGY ARE NOT DONE RIGHT.

SCIENCE DEMANDS THINGS LIKE REPEATABILITY. THIS IS RARELY DONE IN PSYCHOLOGY STUDIES.

SCIENCE ALSO DEMANDS THINGS LIKE THE ABILITY TO OBJECTIVELY OBSERVE THINGS. BUT YOU CANNOT DO THIS IS SOCIOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGY. YOUR OWN PERCEPTIONS DEEPLY COLOR YOUR INTERPRETATION OF OTHERS.

SCIENCE ALSO DEMANDS MATHEMATICAL RIGOR. AS ANOTHER POINTED OUT, THIS STUDY INVOLVED SOMETHING LIKE 311 INDIVIDUALS, WHICH IS AN ASTONISHINGLY SMALL NUMBER.

NEUROSCIENCE WILL BECOME THE PROPER SCIENCE THAT PSYCHOLOGY CURRENTLY CLAIMS TO BE.

THIS BOOK HAS AN INTERESTING SECTION ON THE SCIENTIFIC SHORTCOMINGS OF PSYCHOLOGY.

PSYCHOLOGY AND SOCIOLOGY ARE GREAT THINGS, AND I'M HAPPY FOR THEIR EXISTENCE. BUT PEOPLE WHO CLAIM "SCIENCE IS SCIENCE" NEEDED MORE CLASSES ON MATHEMATICS, PHYSICS, AND CHEMISTRY.

EDIT: HERPADERP "SCIENCES" ==> "STUDIES". ALSO, WHEN DID REDDIT BECOME SO STUPID?

Michael Pollan, the author of "The Omnivore's Dilemma" and "The Botany of Desire", recently released a book on psychedelics and their potential to treat addiction and other mental issues.

It's called "How To Change Your Mind"

https://www.amazon.com/Change-Your-Mind-Consciousness-Transcendence/dp/1594204225

I cannot recommend this book highly (nyuknyuk) enough. Having tried LSD, psilocybin, and ecstasy, I can say that I really enjoyed most of those experiences. Of course, setting is key. You need to be in a good place, both physically and mentally.

This book is a revelation. Pollan does excellent research, and also documents his own experiences with the drugs that he profiles.

I wept with joy several times as he interviewed people who recounted how their lives were changed for the better after having a guided trip.

It was glorious.

Most recommendations I’ve heard are for 0.2g, up to 0.4g of mushrooms. It could be more but generally, what I’ve seen recommended is that if you can feel it, it’s too much. Dose one day, skip two days. It should make you generally feel like your day is better. Your brain can gain the ability to make new neural connections, among other amazing things. Check out the Paul Stamets interview on Joe Rogan around 46:00 and the fantastic
The Psychadelic Explorers Guide on The Tim Ferris show with Jim Fadiman, they discuss it right away. There’s also books, How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence https://www.amazon.com/dp/1594204225/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_ZKL5BbQ7K6JYQ (though Michael Pollan offers little on microdosing)
about this new frontier of psychedelics plus a new micodosing specific documentary.
Then there’s the wide variety of psychadelic research currently happening, leading back to OP.
Edit: formatting

Check out some pop math books.

John Derbyshire's Prime Obsession talks about today's most famous unsolved problem, both the history of and an un-rigorous not-in-depth discussion of the mathematical ideas.

There's also Keith Devlin's Mathematics: The New Golden Age, which, to quote redditor schnitzi, "provides an overview of most of the major discoveries in mathematics since 1960, across all subdisciplines, and isn't afraid to try to teach you the basics of them (unlike many similar books)."

Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott is an interesting novel about dimension and immersion. An absolute classic, first published in 1884.

You should also check out the books on math history.

Journey Through Genius covers some of the major mathematical breakthroughs from the time of the Greeks to modern day. I enjoyed this one.

Derbyshire wrote one too called Unknown Quantity: A Real and Imaginary History of Algebra which I've heard is good.

And finally, you should check out at least one book containing actual mathematics. For this I emphatically recommend Paul Halmos' Naive Set Theory. It is a small book, just 100 pages, absolutely bursting with mathematical insight and complexity. It is essentially a haiku on a subject that forms the theoretical foundation of all of today's mathematics (though it is slowly being usurped by category theory). After sufficient background material is introduced, the book covers the ever-important Axiom of Choice (remember the Banach-Tarski paradox?), along with its sisters, Zorn's Lemma and the Well Ordering Principle. After that it discusses cardinal numbers and the levels of infinity. The path he takes is absolutely beautiful and his experience and understanding virtually drips from the pages.

Oh yeah, there's an awesome reading list of books put out by the University of Cambridge that might be of interest too: PDF warning.

Does he like reading? If he does, buy him these books:

Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! Adventures of a Curious Character

What Do You Care What Other People Think?: Further Adventures of a Curious Character

The man who loved only numbers

Those are amusing biographies of two scientists, Richard Feynman and Paul Erdos.

Just taking Psilocybin won't really help fix much. You're better off using it in a therapeutic setting intended to help you deal with past issues. It's all about your intentions using it and the set and setting.

​

I can't recommend Michael Pollans book enough to help you understand how Psilocybin works and the therapy that goes along with it. https://www.amazon.com/Change-Your-Mind-Consciousness-Transcendence/dp/1594204225

​

If you want a quick intro to everything, his interview with Tim Ferriss is really great:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbBXplrwbyQ

https://tim.blog/2018/05/06/michael-pollan-how-to-change-your-mind/

​

Good luck, be safe, and take it slow. You're gonna be just fine.

If you don't know much about physics I would recommend The Dancing Wu-Li Masters by Gary Zukov. That's one of the main books that got me interested in the field. Clearly written enough for a 9th grader to understand. Also, It explores some philosophical parallels to physics which I enjoyed quite a bit (don't worry, it's nothing like What the Bleep)

Also, if you'd like some insight on how a genius thinks, I would recommend Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman? It's one of my favorite books of all time. There's actually no science in this book - it's basically a collection of anecdotes from Richard Feynmann's life. He talks about his experiences in college, grad school, and working on the A-bomb in Los Alamos among other things. Incredibly entertaining stuff.

Do you have any strong interests? For example, I love math, and the book The Man Who Loved Only Numbers, which is a biography of Paul Erdos.

If you are interested in graphic novels, and they are allowed for the assignment, Logicomix is the quest of Bertrand Russell for an ultimate basis of mathematics, and how the journey of understanding can often lead towards obsession and madness.

If you're interested in physics, Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman is a great book that is arguably a biography.

So, what are you most interested in?

Well there are a lot of useful links in this /r/math post (check the comments, too).

In addition to Khan Academy, there's MIT OCW, Paul's Math Notes, and PatrickJMT. There's also the Art of Problem Solving books.

But really, you don't need to watch calculus videos if you're going to take classes this summer. Your time might be better spent doing the exercises on Khan Academy to make sure there aren't gaps in your knowledge.

I highly recommend books by James Gleick, specifically Chaos, Genius, Isaac Newton, and The Information. Also, Polya's How to Solve It, GEB (join us in /r/geb!), and GH Hardy's A Mathematician's Apology. Here are some lists of popular math books.

You might find this collection of links on efficient study habits helpful.

If you enjoyed Cosmos, I would also recommend Demon-Haunted World. Excellent for cutting through some of the bullshit that surrounds our day to day lives.

I would recommend reading some Richard Feynman too. Surely You're Joking is one of the favorites. He doesn't talk about lofty subjects or anything. He was just a down to earth guy from a working class family in Queens who happened to be a Nobel-prize winning physicist and a great storyteller. He was a genius without the facetious smartypants attitude.

This is a famous lecture of his if you want to get a feel for what his writing is like.

To answer your second question, KhanAcademy is always good for algebra/trig/basic calc stuff. Another good resource is Paul's online Math Notes, especially if you prefer reading to watching videos.

To answer your second question, here are some classic texts you could try (keep in mind that parts of them may not make all that much sense without knowing any calculus or abstract algebra):

Men of Mathematics by E.T. Bell

The History of Calculus by Carl Boyer

Some other well-received math history books:

An Intro to the History of Math by Howard Eves, Journey Through Genius by William Dunham, Morris Kline's monumental 3-part series (1, 2, 3) (best left until later), and another brilliant book by Dunham.

And the MacTutor History of Math site is a great resource.

Finally, some really great historical thrillers that deal with some really exciting stuff in number theory:

Fermat's Enigma by Simon Sigh

The Music of the Primes by Marcus DuSautoy

Also (I know this is a lot), this is a widely-renowned and cheap book for learning about modern/university-level math: Concepts of Modern Math by Ian Stewart.

I am currently reading a fantastic book which might be interesting for you. It is called Journey through Genius. The book starts from the beginning of math and presents hand picked theorems in a very engaging way. Background information on the great mathematicians and what drove them to come up with these proofs in the first place makes the information stick long after reading. I also second PuTongHua who recommended Better Explained.

Like you I work at a tech startup. When we were just starting, our business/strategy people asked the question you just asked. They opened a dialog with development team, and found good answers. I attribute our success in large part to that dialog being eager and open-minded, just as you are being right now. So, it's good tidings that you are asking.

For us, the answer came from conversation, but it also came from reading the following books together:

• The Soul of a new Machine. Pulitzer Prize Winner, 1981. It will teach you the texture of our work and of our love for it, as well as good role models for how to interact with devs.
  
  
• Coders at Work, reflection on the craft of programming Will give you perspective on the depth of our discipline, so you may know to respect our perspective when we tell you what the technology can or cannot do -- even when it is counter-intuitive, as ModernRonin described.
  
  
• Lean Startup It will teach you the means to deal with the difficult task of providing hyper-detailed requirements when the nature of building new software is always that it's new and we don't really know yet what we're building.
  
  
• Agile Samurai Will teach you agile, which ModernRonin also mentioned.
  
  
• Watch this talk by one of the inventor/popularizer of agile, Ken Schwaber Pay particular attention to the issue of code quality over time. You will soon be surrounded by devs who will be responsible for making highly intricate judgement calls balancing the value of releasing a new feature a tad earlier, versus the potentially crippling long-term impact of bad code. Heed Ken Schwaber's warning: your role as a manager is to be an ally in protecting the long-term viability of the code's quality. If you fail -- usually by imposing arbitrary deadlines that can only be met by sacrificing quality -- your company will die.
  
  
  
  

Somebody in another comment mentioned Kevin Mitnick.

In addition to Mitnick's book, I'll also recommend:

Steven Levy's Hackers. It's a classic exploration of the birth of the computer age and hacker culture, with a lot of insights into the mindset of computer people, both white-hat and black-hat.

The Cuckoo's Egg by Cliff Stoll, which is an account of him tracking down some serious hackers waaay back in the day. It's kind of vintage now, but I remember it being very well written and engaging. It's more like reading a novel than some dry academic piece.

In similar vein is Takedown, by Tsutomu Shimomura, which is Shimomura's account of pursuing and catching Kevin Mitnick. Also quite good, as it was co-written by John Markoff. There's a whiff of Shimomura tooting his own horn in it, but you definitely get a feel for the chase as it was happening, and learn a lot about the details of what Mitnick (and others in the underground hacking world) were actually doing.

Weird fact: I had no idea at the time, of course, but during some of Mitnick's last days before they nabbed him, he lived in an apartment building in my neighborhood in Seattle, right across from the grocery store where I always shopped. And about a year later, I ended up dating a girl who lived in that same building at that time, though of course she had no idea Mitnick was there either or even who he was. Still, I always wonder if I ever happened to stand next to him in line at the grocery store or something like that.

For books that will help you appreciate math, I recommend Journey Through Genius by William Dunham for a general historical approach, and Love and Math by Edward Frenkel and Prime Obsession by John Derbyshire for specific focuses in "modern" mathematics (in these cases, the Langlands program and the Riemann Hypothesis).

There's a lot of mathematical lore that you'll find really interesting the first time you read it, but then it becomes more and more grating each subsequent time you come across it. (The example that springs most readily to mind is how the Pythagorean theorem rocked the Greeks' socks about their belief in numbers and what the brotherhood supposedly did to the guy who proved that irrational numbers exist). For that reason, I recommend reading only one or two books that summarize the historical developments in math up to the present, and then finding books that focus on one mathematician or one theorem that is relatively modern. In addition to the books I mentioned above, there are also some good ones on the Poincare Conjecture and Fermat's Last Theorem, and given that you're a computer science guy, I'm sure you can find a good one about P = NP.

> Kopierte du virkelig samme svar du ga til en annen?! Gå ut å få deg luft.

Ja det gjorde jeg og det like etter å ha tilbringt 6 timer i skog og mark med over 30 venner. Go figure!

> Du er så opplagt en komplett slave til iden om hasj at jeg skal støtte forbud kun for gleden av å gjøre det vanskelig for sånne samfunns slasker som deg.

Det var da voldsomt. Så det du sier er at du støtter organisert kriminalitet?

Er forøvrig ganske mange år siden jeg brukte cannabis og da i samråd med en psykolog pga PTSD. Produsert av meg selv i et skap på soverommet, for å ikke støtte organsisert kriminalitet og ikke minst for å være trygg på hva jeg fikk i meg. Dette var på ingen måte vanskelig eller kostbart.

Det er heldigvis på ingen måte nødvendig lenger etter at jeg tok en tur til Costa Rica. Det anbefales om du har mulighet, men gjør grundig research i forkant. Vet forøvrig om norske psykologer som drar til Sverige for dette. Har også bekjente av en bekjent, som for mange er en veldig kjent person, som opererer i Danmark. (Det ble jaggu et sammensurium av en setning. Henger du fortsatt med?)

Om det blir for skummelt kan du kanskje lese denne boka Om du ikke er en leser, så finnes den også på lydbok lest at forfatteren selv. Den er skrevet av en utenforstående, for utenforstående som deg. Han er kjent for å være en svært god formidler og bruker her denne evnen i et forsøk på å sette ord på erfaringer, som er svært vanskelig å sette ord på. Den blir regnet som et sjumilssteg i den psykedeliske rennesansen, som nå er på vei også til Norge

"Michael Pollan is the author of seven previous books, including Cooked, Food Rules, In Defense of Food, The Omnivore's Dilemma and The Botany of Desire, all of which were New York Times bestsellers. A longtime contributor to the New York Times Magazine, he also teaches writing at Harvard and the University of California, Berkeley. In 2010, TIME magazine named him one of the one hundred most influential people in the world."

“Pollan’s deeply researched chronicle will enlighten those who think of psychedelics chiefly as a kind of punchline to a joke about the Woodstock generation and hearten the growing number who view them as a potential antidote to our often stubbornly narrow minds....engaging and informative.”—Boston Globe



Her er et kort intervju fra CBS



Ser meg ut som en slave og en slask du ;)

Kan du nevne en eneste positiv følge av "narkotika"forbudet?

Are you looking for fiction or non-fiction?

As far as non-fiction goes here are a few I like for kids:

Women in Science

Rad American Women

Girls Think of Everything

Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls

And if you search for any of these books there are always suggestions of tons of other great books. I have a Girl Scout troop so I'm always browsing for great pro-women books for them.

Also the Wreck this Journal books aren't "books" but still super fun for girls that age!

If you want to know EVERYTHING about ants, I recommend E.O. Wilson's The Ants.

However, this book is quite expensive and very dense. Journey to the Ants,also by Wilson, is a much better option for laypeople. It has almost all the information you're looking for, nice pictures, and is honestly very exciting to read. It captures the imagination and is very... inspirational! Check it out from a library if you can.

My husband and I have recently realized that LSD is now our favorite drug. We're amazed that something so tiny have such a crazy profound effect on your mind.

We've started reading "How to change your mind" by Michael Pollan and it's fascinating. He talks about the history of LSD in clinical studies in the 50-70s and that the drug influenced a lot of organizations, including the beginning of Alcoholics Anonymous.

If you're interested in learning more about the drug, it's definitely an interesting read, it would be even better on audio book.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1594204225/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_zn-KBbYB9Z16H

I would recomend you to read Future Crimes by Marc Goodman https://www.amazon.co.uk/Future-Crimes-Digital-Underground-Connected/dp/0552170801?SubscriptionId=AKIAILSHYYTFIVPWUY6Q&tag=duckduckgo-ffab-uk-21&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=0552170801 mostly deals with the non existence of electronic security though and how it is and can be exploited

Information and Corporate security is a very big subject, so it kind of depends where you intend to take your story. But you can start by reading the Wikipedia article about InfoSec https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_security and then see how each area fits into your story and work out from there.

Some realisim in how difficult it can be to track down a hacker, read The Cuckoo's Egg by Clifford Stoll
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cuckoos-Egg-Tracking-Computer-Espionage/dp/1416507787/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1500888747&sr=1-1&keywords=clifford+stoll very different from what you see in the media

IMHO the most interesting area in Information security is Social Engineering, it requires cunning and skill, and sometimes you can't stop admiring the talents and genius of some of these people. Read Social Engineering: The Art of Human Hacking https://www.amazon.co.uk/Social-Engineering-Art-Human-Hacking/dp/0470639539/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1500889212&sr=1-1&keywords=social+engineering+the+art+of+human+hacking

Each year Verizon release their data breach report http://www.verizonenterprise.com/verizon-insights-lab/dbir/2017/ it is free to download (don't have to register, just click the download only button) I think that is possibly the best insight you can get into corporate security challenges in 2017

[About Time](About Time: Celebrating Men's Watches https://www.amazon.com/dp/0764349058/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_mUazzb1CZSCQ7) is a great coffee table book and a great read.

[Longitude](Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time https://www.amazon.com/dp/080271529X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_OVazzbZN0WWP2) is about John Harrison and the invention of modern time keeping. This should be on everyone's list.

I highly recommend Jouney Through Genius by William Dunham. It covers the great theorems in history from Euclid to Cantor, and the writing style is very engaging and accessible. It has a perfect five star record on amazon with over a hundred reviews which is pretty rare.

fantastic read, great story, great history, great 'history of science' anecdote. great tl;dr:

> scurvy bad; science hard

this piece reminded me a lot of another similar book about the development of the chronometer:

longitude

Fiction Books

Cryptonomicon - Very few books make up a cypher system based on playing cards, have a story that spans WW2 through the present day and in large part revolve around creating an alternate digital currency, a data haven and startup life.

Neuromancer - this is the book that created cyberpunk and that inspired all those bad movie ideas about hacking in 3D systems. That being said, it marked a real turning point in SciFi. Without this book "cyber" security specialists would probably be called something else.

Snow Crash - This is much more breezy than the other two but still has very recognizable hacking/security elements to it and is just fun.

Non Fiction

Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman - This isn't a book about technology so much as deduction and figuring things out (while being hilariously entertaining).

I included all these here in large part because they are what inspired me to get into development and sysadmin work and I bet that I'm about 20 years older than you if you're just getting into the field - so there's a decent chance that your coworkers are into them too.

Ok I had to review with my wife which was which because I was conflating a couple books we got.

This one, was a bit heavy handed but actually a pretty solid set of biographies about women in science that also discusses the struggles they had specifically as women. Heavy handed sometimes but overall good.

This one was hot garbage. It was tons of ham fisted biographies of women where the overall message is "women are better than men." The lessons from the stories were lame, the overall message was lame, it wasn't well written. That one was a stinker.

This was the fairy tale one. It is a really beautiful book but the "updated" stories are just these lame modernized stinkers like "Cinderella is mistreated so she forms her own company to respect workers rights" and the like. So the author bravely "subverts" all the classic fairy tales (oooh how post modern!) and you are left with a kind of a preachy collection of over the top screeds. It isn't quite as bad as I am making it out to be but overall it was more annoying than refreshing.

This biography of Paul Dirac is excellent.

This autobiography (in the form of a sequence of anecdotes) of Richard Feynman is a classic.

This biography of Robert Oppenheimer is extremely good as well.

This book contains short biographies all the most significant figures involved with every Hilbert Problem.

This is a work of science fiction where the main character belongs to a monastic order devoted to mathematics and theoretical science. It's among my favorite books.

edit: Who downvotes this? Really? Even if you think you've got better options... just leave a comment with them for OP.

This is great. I remember reading the book this came from 7 or 8 years ago but I don't remember this at all. I do remember really enjoying the book though. I seriously recommend it to everyone. It's his autobiography and he's a really great story teller. The Book on Amazon.com

You're perfectly free to repair your own laptop.

You have a right to repair your own laptop.

But you haven't got a right to get Apple to help you.

--------------------

Richard Feynman told the story of the old electrician who was upset at these new microchip things. Because the guy couldn't understand how he was supposed to get in there with this soldering iron to fix a transistor.

You don't. You don't fix it. You can try, but the fact that you can't is your problem.

They're perfectly free to use technology that you cannot repair; that's the way it goes.

I like Journey Through Genius. It is completely elementary, requiring nothing beyond perhaps a semester of basic algebra. It presents some amazing theorems and emphasizes both the creativity and the logical rigor required to achieve them. I can't remember every theorem, but I know it includes Pythagorus' Theorem, the irrationality of the square root of two, Euclids geometry, the infinitude of the primes, some number theory of Fermat, Isaac Newton on the Binomial Theorem, the quadratic equation and the solution of the third and fourth degree polynomials by radicals and why this requires complex numbers, an exploration of complex numbers, and some non-Euclidean geometry. All that whilst requiring, as I said, no mathematical maturity whatsoever, and being quite easy and enjoyable to read. I highly recommend it.

What you're looking for is celestial navigation and it is a LOT trickier than you would think. First, you need to be able to identify the navigation stars. When I was using c-nav on a daily basis I was able to identify 19 stars that were extremely useful for navigation. Without a sextant, specific math skills, an almanac, and the crazy little book that has all the information you need about the stars and planets (or a great compueter program to do it for you once you input your measurements), you'll still be a bit lost even if you know all the stars.

One thing you can do without all of the above is learn the declination of a few major stars. This will give you some sense of your latitude. For example, Arcturus has about a 20° dec. This just so happens to coincide with the southern tip of Hawaii. So if you sail north until Arcturus passes through the zenith, then you know that you are at the same latitude as Hawaii. Knowing your Longitude, however, is a much more difficult task.

http://www.celestialnavigation.net/
http://www.celnav.de/ (you can download ICE, which is what we used to do the calculations)

If you are actually interested in c-nav, I recommend you go to your local marina (if you have one) and see if the coast guard or a sailing society is putting on any courses in c-nav. It is one of the most satisfying things to do, but it does take time to learn. It is complicated and confusing. But man, when you can line up a pinwheel there is NO better feeling. To know that you are RIGHT THERE and you used tiny pinpricks of light gazillions miles away to find it. Man. Its amazing.

I also recommend the book Longitude by David Sobel as an interesting read that goes along with c-nav. Latitude was always easy. LONGITUDE, however, was a problem that plagued navigators for centuries.

For The Legend of Zelda, there's (as others have said) "Hyrule Historia". There's also a book called "Legends of Localization" that details the localization process of the original Legend of Zelda from Japanese to English:

http://www.fangamer.com/products/legends-of-localization-zelda-book

If you're into manga, there's a whole set of Zelda mangas:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/mobile/p/the-legend-of-zelda-box-set-akira-himekawa/1104178239/2683774677098?st=PLA&sid=BNB_DRS_Marketplace+Shopping+greatbookprices_00000000&2sid=Google_&sourceId=PLGoP24049&k_clickid=3x24049

There's also "Legend Of the Hero" by Kari Fry, which is essentially a field journal of sorts about the Legend of Zelda franchise, with some gorgeous artwork:

http://www.fangamer.com/products/legend-of-the-hero

Kari Fry has also made similar things for Pokemon and Animal Crossing, titled "The Field Guide to Kanto" and "A Guide to Village Life", respectively found here:

http://www.fangamer.com/products/kanto-field-guide

And here:

http://www.fangamer.com/products/a-guide-to-village-life

Another fun title is "Super Mario: How Nintendo Conquered America", which is about the history of Nintendo of a company (although you could probably find all of the information online, it's definitely a nice book to have on the shelf), and you can grab that one on Amazon here:

http://www.amazon.com/Super-Mario-Nintendo-Conquered-America/dp/1591845637

Those are all of the ones I know about, but I'm sure there are more out there!

Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!

Autobiography of Richard Feynman, what fucking brilliant hilarious man.

You will love this book no matter if you're into science or not, I promise.

https://www.amazon.com/Surely-Feynman-Adventures-Curious-Character/dp/0393316041

As an engineer in a research position: I'd give you my upvotes for the next 100 days if I could.

Here's how you (the reader of this thread) can start: Read Surely you must be joking, Mr. Feynman, a nice book with anecdotes about the life of a particularly gifted scientist with lots of wit and perspective on how actual science is different from sudo science. It's a very entertaining book and IMO a great way to get some basics about the world view of a true scientist. It has lots of examples of fields other than physics that he did some investigation in, and maybe you'll find something that particularly interests you.

You're not going to want to read things that make you wish you had a computer with you, trust me. You have no idea how many times I have tried to force myself to read stuff like that when traveling or on vacation. Never works. So here's some stuff geared more towards the philosophy of development and programming that will be fun to read and will probably make you want to slow down, relax, and think about the concepts.

• The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering by Fred Brooks
  
  
• The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master by Andrew Hunt
  
  And for fun:
  
  
• The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage by Cliff Stoll

I'd recommend two sources that cover the reception with relation to the competition: Jeff Ryan's "How Nintendo Conquered America" and Blake Harris's more recent "Console Wars."

One of the things that Ryan focused on is Mario 64's innovation (indeed, Nintendo's promotional materials focused on this too) -- it' was one of the first games where you could control the camera in all directions. Mario 64 was one of the few games available at the console's launch, and it showcased the new console hardware and possibilities that weren't available on the Playstation or Saturn. I can't speak to the greatness it immediately received, but a lot of the early reviews certainly focused on its innovative features and newness that otherwise wasn't available on other consoles or, for that matter, Mario Games (while Mario RPG was 3d, this allowed complete control over his moves and attacks)

Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman

American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer

• These two biographies of famous physicists of the last century are well-written (in a way like fiction).
  
  
• These are extremely good books and are a joy to read.
  
  
• They will teach you about Science (read: physics) and may inspire you to become a Scientist.
  
  
• Some of the explanations involve very interesting physics (general relativity, quantum mechanics, development of the atom bomb, particle physics, etc.) and are written for laymen, so you don't need any background in Physics to be able to understand most of the explanations.
  
  
  
• Read some of the reviews in the amazon links so you can see what other people enjoyed about the books.
  

Richard Feynman. In his auto-biographical books like Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! he comes across as a lovable braggart and trickster. I read most of that book to my kids.

Not only are his stories interesting, but he had a gift for teaching. His science books are full of great explanations.

A couple of books that focus maybe a little more on the people that developed game theory than the theory itself, but I'll throw them out there anyway:

• Prisoner's Dilemma: John von Neumann, Game Theory, and the Puzzle of the Bomb by William Poundstone. Good biography of a fascinating character, which also covers the basics of game theory.
  
  
• A Beautiful Mind by Sylvia Nassar. Don't let the (IMO) shitty movie dissuade you from this one - this is an outstanding book.
  
  

I take drugs for that (ssri nonsense). Works a treat. I used to find if I had mochas and panadol (tylenol?) I could go back to normal for a while, but soon the caffeine caused too much anxiety. Also quit drinking.

Ah also, graphic novels. Jesus does reading help with depression, but if you're too far gone to read a page, start with graphic novels, reread Enders Game or other young adult stuff, then go back into fantasy and scifi. Ease yourself into a new time sink.

Also, at the moment One Punch the anime is really good. I don't know if that's related. If anime is your thing, shinsekai yori is the best. Followed by Berserk.


EDIT: graphic novels I like: If you're into philosophy or science you might too http://www.amazon.com/Logicomix-An-epic-search-truth/dp/1596914521 http://www.amazon.com/Feynman-Jim-Ottaviani/dp/1596438274

> I feel similarly about computer security, in broad terms. The scary thing isn't that "hackers" can do the cyber equivalent of teleporting into your neighbourhood and trying the lock on your front door; it's that we live in a culture where people habitually don't even metaphorically install locks (despite the fact that they're often absurdly effective and trivial in cost), and also the part where people habitually have no understanding of the value of their metaphorical household goods (often many times the value of the property itself).

The book The Cuckoo's Egg is, by the way, an excellent nonfictional account of an early computer security case that has strong echoes with many of the security issues we are facing today. (And is also a damn good read, highly recommended.)

Until you manage to get that book, I'd recommend getting "Surely You're Joking, Mr Feynman!":
http://www.amazon.com/Surely-Feynman-Adventures-Curious-Character/dp/0393316041

It's a great book about curiosity, knowledge and research from a great mind.

> As you can imagine, this is not a topic we can just bring up with our current friends. So many of them don't use any kind of drugs at all.

Why not? We bring up tripping with our straight friends all the time. Maybe give them Michael Pollen on tripping. He is pretty mainstream and quite popular.

I would also suggest investigating your regional burning man community. They generally ahve facebook groups, and local events. They skew a bit older, and are pretty ok with tripping.

> But without other like-minded people there would be no reason to grow more as we could never consume them all ourselves, and I am not interested in selling them.

When I grew shrooms, it was really easy to give them away. I swear once someone found out I had them, I would get so many requests. Be aware that they do go bad, faster than LSD in my experience.

Journey Through Genius: Exploring the Great Theorems of Mathematics. - William Dunham

Journey through Genius: The Great Theorems of Mathematics https://www.amazon.com/dp/014014739X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_uOd3CbD8DH8CN

A great read that does walkthroughs of proofs and breakthroughs. Highly recommended.

You should try psychedelics. In many test cases, subjects who use such substances (especially psilocybin mushrooms) in a clinical setting report greatly reduced fear of death. Please check out this book on the subject by the science writer Michael Pollan,

https://www.amazon.com/Change-Your-Mind-Consciousness-Transcendence/dp/1594204225

Here are some recent podcasts the author has appeared on to discuss the book. The discussion focused on the positive impact of medicinal psychedelic use amongst terminally ill patients:

From the Joe Rogan Experience:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tz4CrWE_P0g

From the Waking Up Podcast:

https://samharris.org/podcasts/127-freedom-known/

I really hope this helps. As humans we’re all united by the common struggle with our own mortality, and I wish you all the best in enjoying your life. Hang in there :)

If you like feynman, there's endless amounts of material you can watch / read with or on him.

Project Tuva

Surely you're joking mr. Feynman is my personal favorite Feynman book. It's not technical, but tremendously fascinating.

and the Feynman Lecture of Physics. Can't find an amazon link to that one for the actual audio, but it's direct recordings of some of his lectures. They have probably about 10 CDs at my local library that I've listened to. It's just fascinating to hear this man talk.

Just imagine how I must have felt when I discovered that ants have diplomacy, propaganda, policing, warfare, a waste management system and nest architecture as, if not more, complicated than humans! How could you not love them!

If you want to know more, I highly recommend reading:

http://www.amazon.ca/Journey-Ants-Story-Scientific-Exploration/dp/0674485262

In my own research, it was the fact that what ever I discover in ants seem to apply to other organisms. Its very exciting. Because ants are social, it seems that discovering the hoydens secret of biology is easier. We would have never discovered that we could induce the dormant potential of super soldier ants had they not taken care of these are anomalies in their colonies. They are like humans, they take care of their less fortunate!

If anyone is interested in more Feynman, I suggest checking out The Pleasure of Finding Things Out: The Best Short Works of Richard P. Feynman (links to Amazon). He had a fascinating outlook on life and learning.

One of the best books I've read that places mathematical discoveries in their historical contexts: Journey Through Genius. Dunham tells the story of math through different great theorems - why they were historically important, why they are important today - and then walks you through the proof. My copy is at school, so I can't say anything more tonight, but give it a shot.

Good luck!

Very interesting!

I will say that it's a shame you discounted the ingame sprites, because the technical limitations are actually a HUGE factor as to why Mario looks the way he does.

Super Mario by Jeff Ryan goes into great detail about this. It's an awesome read, you might like it. It has a lot of information about the internal processes in Nintendo, and how they managed to push into the American arcade market and culture.

The Christian Bible, the Quran, and the Torah. Don't read them as though these are hostile texts that are trying to impose upon you, read them as though they're mythologies that can be enjoyed, and appreciate their content, as you will have a better understanding of culture and the people around you. You might be surprised just how much of the common and mundane is actually in reference to the bible in our lives. You need to understand people and this is how you do it.

Outside that, I recommend a few good books on math history, not necessarily math education books. Try out Flatland (and it's sequels by other authors) and The History of Pi. I particularly enjoyed Journey Through Genius.

Surely you're joking, Mr Feynman! is really good, and if you like this clip you should read it.

Really interesting guy and the book is a great read.

Your comment reminds me of this comic. Feynman was an influential physicist and one of the best science communicators that ever lived. I first recommend watching these videos, then reading this book (the text of which can be easily found digitally).

Have a good Sunday = ).

If you're interested in Feynman's life and his great stories: "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" and "What Do You Care What Other People Think?" are great reads. The guy was a goddamn rockstar.

So was John Nash, but at heart really a mathematician. This is a great read:

https://www.amazon.com/Beautiful-Mind-Sylvia-Nasar/dp/1451628420

If anyone's interested in the backround of the pictures, go read Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!. It's a really great book, and makes you realize what an awesome person he was. The book is written in such a way that you feel as though you're sitting in a room with him and just sort of chatting.

I'm in, but some people are put off by calling it that. Any idea what that genre of literature would be referred to? Intellectual non-fiction, or something?

As for books to add to the list, Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! is a fantastic read.

> Surely you're Joking, Mr. Feynman, Mr. Feynman

A great book. Many aspiring physicists have read that book and imagined themselves to become a fraction of the character that Feynman was.

If you ever become super fascinated with Feynman, this book and its sequel are very good, but nothing cuts to the real picture of who he was like this collection of his letters over the span of 40 years. It was put together by his daughter.

It may not fit exactly what you're looking for, but my first thought was Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!

It's essentially a bunch of anecdotes throughout his life. It's easy reading, highly entertaining, and covers a wide enough variety of topics that it shouldn't be too hard to annotate. Even if it doesn't fit the requirements for your project, I'd recommend you read it anyway.

There's a fantastic little book about this ("Longitude"). A quick read and a great story - highly recommended for anybody into the history of science & the age of exploration.

I notice you can pick it up used from Amazon for forty-eight cents. Worth it.

You should read "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" He is absolutely hilarious. He is easily my favorite scientist after that book.

It's $3 on amazon right now

If you like the history, I enjoyed "How Nintendo Conquered America". Gives the business side of Nintendo up to the Wii, with predictions for the Wii U so it's a bit out of date, but I liked it.

Super Mario: How Nintendo Conquered America https://www.amazon.ca/dp/1591845637/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_4W9QBb69KTPTG

For a pretty good introduction to a lot of different mathematics, try this book. Journey Through Genius is one of my favorite books. I learned a lot in high school about proof and the history of mathematics and mathematicians. It does a wonderful job of introducing the counter-intuitive concept of countability and sets of infinite numbers.

I'm a fairly new subscriber to this sub and you might have already answered this in a previous post, but I didn't see it right off...

Are you trying every number, or are you skipping every other number or something? Do you have an idea of what kind of precision/tolerances the combination pins have?

Just finished listening to Feynman's book where he describes cracking safes and only needing to test every 5th number... An 80% decrease is pretty significant if you are brute-forcing every possible combination. It looks like that is how the robot in a YouTube video you linked a while back works.

The section on magnets starts at 3:55, but there's a great explanation of the difficulty of "why" questions at the beginning.

P.S. I'd like to take this opportunity to recommend Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman, if anyone hasn't read it yet. There's also a larger hardcover compilation containing that work and a few others called Classic Feynman (this is the edition I have). He was an amazing person, and there are all sorts of spectacular stories about his time on the Manhattan Project, about investigating the Challenger disaster, and about selecting textbooks out for the California school curriculum (this section may make you rage).

Game Over is pretty much the definitive work. The early chapters talk about all the before stuff. I don't think you get to Donkey Kong for a while. It goes into a few different ventures that Yamauchi was trying. Including a light gun shooting gallery and love hotels.

Super Mario is pretty good as well. It covers a lot of the same events.

[Play Value(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ge1UzO2AQc) did an episode on it. It's pretty light and lacks the details, but it could whet your interest.

Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! Autobiography of a member of the Manhattan Project, Nobel Prize winner, Professor at Caltech, bongo drum player, LSD user, painter. Just a bunch of fun eclectic stories.

In a similar vein, I really enjoyed Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman.

It's an autobiography of Fenyman's shenanigans. Lighter on the physics, but if he's a Feynman fan, he'll love it.

Maybe the typing wouldn't be as feverish, but it's possible to be on the same system as a hacker and try to lock him out or track him. The thing is, this is usually not something you want to do, especially in a corporate environment. Generally, you just want to shut down the affected systems and start clean from backups just because there is far too much damage a hacker can do that would be practically impossible to fully trace. If you want to do forensics, it generally is not done live on the hacked system but from a clean environment looking into the affected system. Again, this goes back to the level of trust you can place on an affected system, which isn't much.

If you want to have a nice and entertaining idea as to what hacker vs sysadmin looks like, read The Cuckoo's Egg by Cliff Stoll:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Cuckoos-Egg-Tracking-Espionage/dp/1416507787/

There is a movie based on the book:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcKxaq1FTac

To put it into Mythbusters terms: Plausible, but not likely.

Hope this helps!

I recently read Perfectly Reasonable Deviations from the Beaten Track, and it's a great companion to Surely You're Joking. It's a collection of letters written to and by RPF. Thoroughly entertaining, and I think you learn so much about a person from their correspondence with friends, family, colleagues and fans.

The DOE did not write Common Core. Common Core is one standard, among a few others, that was in the works when Obama (early in his administration) set out some requirements to make some funding available. The requirement was, essentially, that the states that wanted the funding had to adopt some standard that met certain requirements, Common Core was one such standard that was in development. Many states chose to use Common Core, some developed their own (specifically Texas and Virginia).

It has pros and cons. Pros: Gets some things right about integrating cross-subject learning into the curricula. What does this mean? Students should exercise their reading, writing and math schools in a variety of areas to both reinforce the knowledge and skill set, and to demonstrate its utility beyond just passing English and math classes. How's this supposed to be done? Well, history gets reading and writing for free. Integrating math may be more difficult (IMO, if it's not an intuitive segue, it should be skipped). Sciences demonstrate math by default, so they're encouraged to add more reading/writing (writing is easy, have the students write up experiment reports, science fair projects, etc; reading - make it topical, in middle/high school give them books like Longitude to read or something).

Cons: No science standard. Standard may be overly ambitious for some grade levels. Standard was hastily constructed with little feedback. Rolled out to all grade levels rather than introduced over a period of time (most sensible approach, K-3 jumps in, expand it each year for 9 years until all of K-12 is under the selected standard). Testing requirements each year, which really ties back to things like No Child Left Behind, that affects school funding and the employment of educators and administrators (a huge pressure using dubious metrics).

I think looking at the history of math is a great starting point. Where did all the ideas come from? How were they formed? Who were these people that came up with them? What inspired them?

A good read (I thought) on this subject was Journey through Genius:
http://www.amazon.com/Journey-through-Genius-Theorems-Mathematics/dp/014014739X

I've always liked Journey Through Genius. It's pretty small, ~280 pages of paperback novel size, but it covers a nice selection of mathematical history and thinking. It's not comprehensive, but it's a very good introduction to math history. It starts in 440 BCE (Hippocrates) and ends in 1891 CE (Cantor).

Paperback version is only $12: http://www.amazon.com/Journey-through-Genius-Theorems-Mathematics/dp/014014739X

I've always enjoyed Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman, and I think it's great for non-scientists. It's essentially a collection of short stories, which could be nice for quick reads or just before bed.

You sound like me around 10 years ago. The only difference between misery and happiness is what we choose to focus on.

Take a walk! Meditate! Life is so precious. Every moment of your life is a spectacular phenomenon that should be enjoyed and appreciated. If you don't feel that way, I'd recommend some light reading -

https://www.amazon.com/Change-Your-Mind-Consciousness-Transcendence/dp/1594204225

I heard the book "How to Change Your Mind" is very good and might be what you need to convince your friend. :)


Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/Change-Your-Mind-Consciousness-Transcendence/dp/1594204225/

Cheers man. I've just finished the book Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! and I'll be going on to the one you've recommended next :)

http://www.amazon.com/Surely-Feynman-Adventures-Curious-Character/dp/0393316041/ref=pd_sim_b_2/175-5309930-4744562?ie=UTF8&refRID=1DCAC154J2CFHZSADHPZ

I really enjoyed Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman

It's an autobiography by physicist Richard Feynman. Very fun read, by an incredibly interesting man.

Okay understood especially if she seemed to be chasing something for the wrong reasons. The Carl Hart book and his podcast appearances definitely (check the Joe Rogan ones) provide an alternative perspective on drugs (including the comparison with the damage of alcohol) thats worth consideration. Looking back I wish I would have been a lot more open minded in high school as I would have probably had a bit more of a positive experience overall (zero social life lol).

Micheal Pollan is worth a check as well https://smile.amazon.com/Change-Your-Mind-Consciousness-Transcendence-ebook/dp/B076GPJXWZ. His Joe Rogan podcast was pretty informative too.

Don't touch pharmaceuticals for BPD. Practice mindfulness meditation so you get good at watching your mind and explore any past trauma. You can listen to Sam Harris' guided meditations, for example. Recognize that the inability to feel connection is just maladaptive brain mechanisms and trust that there are people you can trust and love/feel-loved-by if you search. Learn about and avoid relationships with psychological dysfunctional people - it's easy to attach to them and get hurt.

Try cannabis, and if you don't suffer paranoia or a "psychotic break" on it, use it to help with the meditation. If you do suffer paranoia or a break, lay off for a bit and continue meditation. You can keep trying cannabis as you get better at dealing with your issues.

Try MDMA if you can get a hold of a pure dose. Don't use too much too often because it's toxic - but you'll feel love unlike anything. If you've felt you've made progress with cannabis, consider psychedelics like psilopcybin starting with tiny doses. Work up to a full experience. LSD can be wonderful, but there are risks. Understand that bad trips are possible, but can be learning experiences.

Again, do not touch standard pharmaceutical solutions, which are lousy for BPD anyway. Read Micheal Pollen's book on psychadelics and the resurgence in research.

I have BPD as well (I'm male). The sensitivity of your emotions can be used for good. Focus on the empathy and learn to control and direct the anger. Avoid alcohol and cigarettes like the plague.

This process will take years, but can be done.

The Pleasure of Finding Things Out: The Best Short Works of Richard P. Feynman is a good place to start with him.

The Practice of System and Network Administration, Second Edition by Thomas A. Limoncelli is a great place to start for mindset. Guess that counts as a "textbook" to you however.

For non-fiction/memoir grab The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage for a great walk-through of what it is like to find an anomaly and track it back to the source and then figure out what to do about it.

There are tons of articles in major publications now about psychedelics being used for therapy, many of them in the New York Times etc. Look some of those up.

​

Michael Pollan just wrote a new book about psychedelics, people in their 30s fucking love Michael Pollan, very famous food writer. He writes from the perspective of someone who had not really taken psychedelics, and wanted to know about history and neuroscience and immerse himself in it, to see if those transformative experiences were true. He was on a speaking tour for the book and I went to his talk. Hey, if he's coming through your town you should just take everyone to that!

https://www.amazon.com/Change-Your-Mind-Consciousness-Transcendence/dp/1594204225

decent interview about the book here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Whmnx_Cb5ts

this one is more of a talk/presentation, also very good https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuhmZSFvhL0

---------

re: some of the other suggestions

I do not think psychedsubstance youtube vids are going to appeal to non-psychedelic users. That guy's target audience is people who are already interested in psychedelics and other substances, and he writes from a harm reduction perspective. He's also not exactly charming, kind of an abrasive know-it-all.

​

Doors of Perception is a fantastic book but it's a very old perspective and feels very old timey academic to modern readers. Or maybe kind of like a beat poet in search of the miraculous and transcendent. But OP, YOU should certainly read doors of perception.

​

For more pure gold like this, read the pleasure of finding things out, Surely you're joking Mr. Feynman and What do you care what other people think

I’m 40 and weening off .5mg tables 3X a day for eight years. I’ve recently been reading Michael Pollan’s new book about microdosing psilocybin and I am convinced and going to start trying it out when I get low enough on my benzodiazepines and start really feeling WD. I figure this will be a ripe time to try a natural remedy used by shamans for thousands of years to battle tribal anxieties.

This post is a great connection for me.

There's active research starting up. Check out Michael Polan's latest book for deets:
https://www.amazon.com/Change-Your-Mind-Consciousness-Transcendence/dp/1594204225

Great stuff, definitely worth a read.

Feynman was the fuckin man. I strongly suggest that everyone read "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" if they haven't already. It's filled with memoirs and great insight to how he viewed the world. It's a fantastically good read that I couldn't put down until I finished it.

Predictably Irrational - Dan Ariely

The Tao of Pooh - Benjamin Hoff

Surely You're Joking, Mr Feynman! and What Do You Care What Other People Think? - both wonderful collections of Richard Feynman talking about his life, the way he thinks about things, and lessons he learned.

Those are really the first four that come to mind that have had a noticeable effect on the way I think. Might do the same for you, as well.

I have one book recommendation that I hope you would enjoy based on your interests. It is called The Soul of A New Machine, and it outlines the development of a computer back in the 80's. It is a little slow to start, but I thought it was a wonderful book that shows how engineers really work.

Can I ask what your level your astronomy knowledge is at? Taken any classes or read any book? Are you fairly new to the subject? That would really affect any recommendations.

>Ok, what are his misconceptions?

When it was written, how it was written, who he is talking to. I pointed that out already. And that is a start.

>He thinks it's a shame that these young men are spending their time only worrying about how to apply science to interpreting their holy book. Is this a misconception of rabbinical students' interest in science?

Well, that it is about interpreting a Holy Book is also a misconception. In their view, and their view is quite important in understanding what they are doing, they are trying to understand God's Law. Oh, and in Judaism, which is not Christianity, there is more than the "Book" that gives God's Law. There is Written and Oral Torah, both from God.

>he in fact tried to help the students settle whether electricity was fire and to prevent any sparks.

Unfortunately there is no evidence the he tried to understand what "fire" meant in the Torah. And that is what matters here, not what modern science talks about.

>I recommend The Meaning of It All for anyone really interested in Feynman's world view. He's actually quite open-minded.

I agree, but he was not perfect or a saint. I would recommend Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman as a start for those who don't have the math. But Meaning is quite good.

Surely you're joking, Mr. Feynman! (Link goes to US Amazon.com store)

Great autobiography about an amazing physicist.

I have three books that I love to loan out (or just strongly recommend to those weirdos out there who refuse a loaner):

• Ender's Game, which has been mentioned.
  
  
• Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman.
  
  
• Lamb by Christopher Moore.
  
  The first two books have in some ways shaped my life over the years. The last book is just the funniest I've ever read.

I recommend Michael Pollan’s book How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence.. He also does the audio book reading himself.

Pollen is a a journalist, activist, and professor at Harvard and UC Berkeley.

In How to Change your Mind, Pollan chronicles the history is psychedelics, what’s happening with its current success in medicine, and its affect on human consciousness.

I really hope Netflix picks this up for another docuseries like his past works such as Cooked and The Botany of Desire.

If you want to teach probability or statistics, take a look at Gelman's Teaching Statistics: A Bag Of Tricks. I've used material from there to good effect.

Edit: Maybe also take a look at better explained.

Edit2: Also Dunham's Journey Through Genius. Very inspiring and fun.

Might as well cite this up here. This is patently false:

> Like many of his colleagues, Hubbard strongly objected to Leary's do-it-yourself approach to psychedelics, especially his willingness to dispense with the all-important trained guide.

p. 200 of Michael Pollan's How to Change Your Mind. Pages 185-220 are devoted to Leary.

Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! It's "laugh out loud" funny and highly recommended.

Check out The Soul of a New Machine if you're at all interested in computers. It was pretty amazing.

To be fair he's quoting feynman, aka our guy. The man was a rationalist and wasn't necessarily born a genius, just very curious and was stellar at using simple examples to convey complex ideas. There's a fun, not so serious book about him with a bunch of quotes like this, it's a good read https://www.amazon.com/Surely-Feynman-Adventures-Curious-Character/dp/0393316041

Dava Sobel writes about science in history, and she's fantastic. Longitude, in particular was great!

I also really like Simon Winchester's The Professor and the Madman about the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary

> Perhaps my education was too narrow.

No education is ever too narrow. Like the "Hall of the Mountain King" in the Adventure game, paths lead off in all directions. But a snake blocks our path.

> At the time I felt almost like an elite getting to skip some electives I considered non-sense.

In Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!

https://www.amazon.com/Surely-Feynman-Adventures-Curious-Character/dp/0393316041

He "complains" about having to read Goethe's Faust. But I think it's more of a joke because Faust does focus on the limits of scientific knowledge - how we never really know enough to control our own destiny.

Not exactly what you're looking for but I promise it's a good read as well. http://www.amazon.com/Surely-Feynman-Adventures-Curious-Character/dp/0393316041

Discusses Feyman's experiences working on the Manhattan Project.

Yes. Have you ever had a psychedelic experience? It's pretty much guaranteed. :)

​

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B076GPJXWZ/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

If you like this, I recommend reading this excellent book on Harrison, the inventor of the escapement. Harrison pretty much single-handedly changed how the seas were navigated, allowing ships to sail with much more precision and thus drastically reducing travel time.

Or his book Surely You're Joking, Mr Feynman. It too is a fantastic read and truly allows you to appreciate the man for not only his fantastic knowledge, but also for the humour he brought to life.

Severo Ornstein's book Computing in the Middle Ages: A View From the Trenches 1955-1983

Contains some neat gems and is a neat read

http://www.amazon.com/Computing-Middle-Ages-Trenches-1955-1983/dp/1403315175


The Soul of a New Machine by Tract Kidder is also a lot of fun

http://www.amazon.com/The-Soul-A-New-Machine/dp/0316491977

Perhaps not a guide, but Michael Pollan's How to Change Your Mind is a great book about history of psychedelic therapy, current events in that field, and looking forward as well as trip reports from the author.

Clifford Stoll's The Cuckoo Egg is an absolutely fascinating insight into tracking a computer hacker transnationally. Well worth a read if you like hearing about hacker stuff.

Amazon links for books mentioned in this thread:

\/u/thetrueonion (OP)

• Digital Apollo, David A. Mindell    -    Other books by this author
  
  
• Eagles of Mitsubishi, Jiro Horikoshi
  
  
• Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!, Richard P. Feynman    -    Other books by this author
  
  
• A Brief History of Time, Stephen Hawking    -    Other books by this author
  
  
• Ignition!: An informal history of liquid rocket propellants, John D. Clark
  
  \/u/llothar:
  
  
• Amazon.com's list of books authored by Richard Feynman
  
  
• The Martian, Andy Weir
  
  \/u/DallasGreen:
  
  
• Closest I could find was Engineering and the Mind's Eye, Eugene S. Ferguson
  
  \/u/gearnut:
  
  
• Slide Rule, Nevil Shute    -    Other books by this author
  
  \/u/frothysasquatch:
  
  
• Waterpower in Lowell: Engineering and Industry in Nineteenth-Century America, Patrick M. Malone
  
  \/u/Beefstyles:
  
  
• Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed, Ben R. Rich
  
  \/u/CalledCaptainHook:
  
  
• One Second After, William R. Forstchen    -    Other books by this author
  
  \/u/75footubi:
  
  
• The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge, David McCullough
  
  \/u/Bradm77:
  
  
• The Soul of A New Machine, Tracy Kidder

William Dunham has a great book,Journey through Genius: The Great Theorems of Mathematics, about this.

There's a pretty good comic book based on his life, which really captures the feel of his humour and work.

Right now I'm reading "Surely you are joking Mr Feynman". great book!

http://www.amazon.com/Surely-Feynman-Adventures-Curious-Character/dp/0393316041

Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!, part 3, "Testing Bloodhounds", e.g.,

> Then I looked at the bookshelf and said, "Those books you haven't
looked at for a while, right? This time, when I go out, take one book off
the shelf, and just open it -- that's all -- and close it again; then put it
back." So I went out again, she took a book, opened it and closed it, and put
it back. I came in -- and nothing to it! It was easy. You just smell the
books.

and:

> We did a few more experiments, and I discovered that while bloodhounds
are indeed quite capable, humans are not as incapable as they think they
are: it's just that they carry their nose so high off the ground!

One of my favorite books is Surely Your Joking Mr. Feynman there is another version with an audio cd that is a great listen.

• The song of the dodo (if I were to recommend a single book that nobody else would recommend you, it would be this one)
  
• Collapse
  
• Guns, germs and steel
  
• Too big to fail
  
• Freakonomics
  
• Surely you're joking, mr. Feynman
  
• Gödel, Escher, Bach - an eternal golden braid
  
• A walk in the woods
  
• A brief history of time
  
  You will notice the absence of A short history of nearly everything, which is a good book, but frankly it didn't speak very much to me. Bryson is almost only interested in geography.

Feynman was one hell of a character. Brilliant man.

Someone did a graphic novel biography of him, if you're interested. Awesome book. And I've never laughed more from a book than from Surely you're joking, Mr Feynman

For the love of all that's holy, read his book:

http://www.amazon.com/Surely-Feynman-Adventures-Curious-Character/dp/0393316041

It's utterly fascinating. Feynman is the only person I have ever wanted to be.