Interview with Eugenia Cheng, author of Is Maths Real?: How Simple Questions Lead Us to Mathematics’ Deepest Truths
Eugenia Cheng, author of Is Maths Real?: How Simple Questions Lead Us to Mathematics’ Deepest Truths recommends a super stack of books! Before jumping into the interview, please check out Eugenia's book:
Description from Bookshop.org:
Why is -(-1) = 1? (All links earn commission from purchases. Prices accurate at time of writing)
Is Maths Real?: How Simple Questions Lead Us to Mathematics’ Deepest Truths
Why do odd and even numbers alternate?
What's the point of algebra?
Is maths even real?
From imaginary numbers to the perplexing order of operations we all had drilled into us, Eugenia Cheng - mathematician, writer and woman on a mission to rid the world of maths phobia - brings us maths as we've never seen it before, revealing how profound insights can emerge from seemingly unlikely sources.
Written with intelligence and passion, Is Maths Real? is a celebration of the true, curious spirit of the discipline.
Buy On:
Easons €23.80
Bookshop.org UK £16.14
Bookshop.org US $27.90
Blackwells £14.53
Waterstones £16.99
Wordery $18.48
Q. Do you have a favourite smart thinking book (and why that book)?
Limitless Mind: Learn, Lead and Live Without Barriers, by Jo Boaler Description from Bookshop.org:
When we learn, we change what we believe and how we interact with the world. This changes who we are as people and what we can achieve.
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I love this book because it provides actual data and evidence for things that I (like many math educators) have long believed from experience and logic - that math is not a fixed biological ability, that everyone can get better at it if helped in the right way, and that the rigid test-based educational methods are counter-productive for many students and are serving to exclude people.
Limitless Mind: Learn, Lead, and Live Without Barriers
Many people grow up being told they are ‘not a maths person’ or perhaps ‘not smart’. They come to believe their potential is limited.
Now, however, the latest science has revealed that our identities are constantly in flux; when we learn new things, we can change our identities, increase our potential and broaden our capacity to receive new information.
Drawing from the latest research, Professor Boaler followed thousands of school students, studied their learning practices and examined the most effective ways to transform pupils from low to high achievers. Throughout her study, Boaler has collaborated with Stanford University neuroscience experts, harnessing their expertise to reinforce her advanced understanding of learning and educational development.
In Limitless Mind, Boaler presents original groundbreaking research that proves that limiting beliefs really do hold us back from fulfilling our potential and that with a few careful life hacks we can transform our potential for good.
Buy On:
Bookshop.org UK £14.24
Bookshop.org US $16.73
Blackwells £12.29
Waterstones £14.99
Wordery $15.57
Q. What's the most recent smart thinking book you've read (and how would you rate it)?
The Gendered Brain: The New Neuroscience that Shatters the Myth of the Female Brain, by Gina Rippon Description from Bookshop.org:
Barbie or Lego? Reading maps or reading emotions? Do you have a female brain or a male brain? Or is that the wrong question?
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I liked this book for similar reasons to the above: that it provides a scientific basis for things I've long believed by experience and logic. The main point is that brains are plastic, and are shaped by use and environment. Brains may be gendered, but that's to be expected because society is gendered, not because of biological pre-destination.
The Gendered Brain: The New Neuroscience That Shatters the Myth of the Female Brain
On a daily basis we face deeply ingrained beliefs that our sex determines our skills and preferences, from toys and colours to career choice and salaries. But what does this mean for our thoughts, decisions and behaviour?
Using the latest cutting-edge neuroscience, Gina Rippon unpacks the stereotypes that bombard us from our earliest moments and shows how these messages mould our ideas of ourselves and even shape our brains. Rigorous, timely and liberating, The Gendered Brain has huge repercussions for women and men, for parents and children, and for how we identify ourselves.
Buy On:
Easons €13.99
Bookshop.org UK £9.49
Bookshop.org US $16.74
Blackwells £9.54
Waterstones £9.99
Wordery $11.99
Q. Do you have a favourite childhood book?
Pride and Prejudice. I re-read it once or twice a year! I love the wry commentary on society, which is still so relevant, and also Jane Austen's beautiful turn of phrase.
Description from Bookshop.org:
When Elizabeth Bennet first meets eligible bachelor Fitzwilliam Darcy, she thinks him arrogant and conceited; he is indifferent to her good looks and lively mind. When she later discovers that Darcy has involved himself in the troubled relationship between his friend Bingley and her beloved sister Jane, she is determined to dislike him more than ever. In the sparkling comedy of manners that follows, Jane Austen shows the folly of judging by first impressions and superbly evokes the friendships,gossip and snobberies of provincial middle-class life.
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Pride and Prejudice
Buy On:
Easons €6.59
Bookshop.org UK £16.14
Bookshop.org US $23.25
Blackwells £13.99
Waterstones £16.99
Wordery $17.99
Q. Do you prefer reading on paper, Kindle or listening to an audiobook?
I prefer reading on paper because I often need to flick back and forth to recap things. However, I love the convenience of e-books when I'm traveling. Carrying one e-reader around is so much easier than carrying a stack of books, plus it means I don't have to decide in advance what I want to read. I also like the fact that I can hold the e-reader in one hand and a drink in the other.
Q. Do you have a favourite bookshop (and why that shop)?
Sandmeyer's is my local family-run independent bookstore in Chicago and they are wonderful. They have been big supporters of my books ever since my first one, doing all my launches, and doing virtual signings during the pandemic. Anyone can order a signed book from me, by ordering it from Sandmeyer's and requesting an autograph - then I just pop in and sign it before it ships.
Many thanks to Eugenia for recommending a super stack of books! Please don't forget to check out Is Maths Real?: How Simple Questions Lead Us to Mathematics’ Deepest Truths.
Daryl
Image Copyrights: Profile Books Ltd (Is Maths Real?), HarperCollins Publishers (Limitless Mind), Vintage Publishing (The Gendered Brain), Penguin Group (Pride and Prejudice).
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