Interview with Kate Kitagawa, author of The Secret Lives of Numbers: A Hidden History of Mathematics
Kate Kitagawa, author of The Secret Lives of Numbers: A Hidden History of Mathematics recommends a great group of books! Before jumping into the interview, please check out Kate's book:
Description from Bookshop.org: (All links earn commission from purchases. Prices accurate at time of writing)
The Secret Lives of Numbers: A Hidden History of Mathematics
Mathematics shapes almost everything we do. But despite its reputation as the study of fundamental truths, the stories we have been told about it are wrong. In The Secret Lives of Numbers, historian Kate Kitagawa and journalist Timothy Revell introduce readers to the mathematical boundary-smashers who have been erased by history because of their race, gender or nationality.
From the brilliant Arabic scholars of the ninth-century House of Wisdom, and the pioneering African American mathematicians of the twentieth century, to the 'lady computers' around the world who revolutionised our knowledge of the night sky, we meet these fascinating trailblazers and see how they contributed to our global knowledge today.
Along the way, the mathematics itself is explained extremely clearly, for example, calculus is described using the authors' home baking, as they pose the question: how much cake is in our cake? This revisionist, completely accessible and radically inclusive history of mathematics is as entertaining as it is important.
Buy On:
Easons €28.00
Bookshop.org UK £19.00
Bookshop.org US $30.68
Blackwells £15.99
Waterstones £17.99
Wordery $25.32
Q. Do you have a favourite smart thinking book (and why that book)?
Ideaflow: The Only Business Metric That Mattersh by Jeremy Utley, Perry Klebahn. Description from Bookshop.org: (All links earn commission from purchases. Prices accurate at time of writing)
My recent favourite -- Ideaflow: The Only Business Metric that Matters by Jeremy Utley and Perry Klebahn.
I've never thought the process of innovation could be explained well in words. But they came up with clever ways of dissecting the mechanism of innovation.
Innovation, especially at the organisational level, is hard to make, but this book gives encouragement to the leaders of the organisations. It is obvious that the more ideas, the better. But how could we choose one if we have 20 ideas? How could we truly pull the best results out of such good ideas? So, in that sense, this book is persuasive in explaining the teamwork, too.
Ideaflow: The Only Business Metric That Mattersh
The single best way to have a great idea is to produce lots of ideas.
The number of new ideas your organization can produce is a metric for its ability to generate novel solutions to any given problem. Your ideaflow is the most crucial business metric that you've never considered. Every business problem is, finally, an idea problem. How well you can solve those problems is how well you and your business can perform, navigate uncertainty, and develop innovations.
Drawing from their decades of teaching Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and Fortune 500 executives at the world famous Stanford d.school and leading innovative companies like Patagonia, Klebahn and Utley offer a battle-tested framework to exponentially boost your ideaflow. You'll learn how to:
-- Establish a brief daily creativity practice
-- Develop thousands of great ideas on demand
-- Run cheap, fast tests to determine which ideas will work
-- Persuade your team and organization on the importance of centering ideaflow
Are you ready to supercharge your organization's creativity?
Buy On:
Easons €20.99
Bookshop.org UK £14.24
Bookshop.org US $26.97
Blackwells £14.99
Waterstones £14.99
Wordery $18.97
Q. What's the most recent smart thinking book you've read (and how would you rate it)?
Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg. Description from Bookshop.org: (All links earn commission from purchases. Prices accurate at time of writing)
Oops, I've answered that already. Going back to the first question, I remember reading Sheryl Sandberg's book Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead and felt inspired. There was a time when a female business leaders was very rare and her words left strong impressions on me. She was also very open. She talked about her personal and professional lives. That was very fresh too. It's not that we all have to open up, but it gave me a chance to think about the work-life balance (and I continue thinking about the balance ever since).
Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead
Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In is a massive cultural phenomenon and its title has become an instant catchphrase for empowering women. The book soared to the top of bestseller lists internationally, igniting global conversations about women and ambition. Sandberg packed theatres, dominated opinion pages, appeared on every major television show and on the cover of Time magazine, and sparked ferocious debate about women and leadership.
Ask most women whether they have the right to equality at work and the answer will be a resounding yes, but ask the same women whether they'd feel confident asking for a raise, a promotion, or equal pay, and some reticence creeps in.
The statistics, although an improvement on previous decades, are certainly not in women's favour – of 197 heads of state, only twenty-two are women. Women hold just 20 percent of seats in parliaments globally, and in the world of big business, a meagre eighteen of the Fortune 500 CEOs are women.
In Lean In, Sheryl Sandberg – Facebook COO and one of Fortune magazine's Most Powerful Women in Business – draws on her own experience of working in some of the world's most successful businesses and looks at what women can do to help themselves, and make the small changes in their life that can effect change on a more universal scale.
Buy On:
Easons €9.49
Bookshop.org UK £12.34
Bookshop.org US $26.04
Blackwells £11.99
Waterstones £12.99
Wordery $16.44
Q. Do you have a favourite childhood book?
Paddington: A Classic Collection by Michael Bond. Description from Bookshop.org: (All links earn commission from purchases. Prices accurate at time of writing)
Paddington Bear series. The first volume changed my life. Travelling, meeting with new people, adventures, and the strong bonding with family members... the story is still good to read as an adult (that is probably why we watch the movie versions too!) Many of my good friends called me a Paddington Bear, not knowing that I like that series. I might be following his path?! Paddington Bear is forever a legend for me!
Paddington: A Classic Collection
Paddington Bear has been delighting adults and children alike with his earnest good intentions and humorous misadventures for nearly sixty years. To celebrate his enduring popularity, ten classic paperback novels are brought together in this special slipcase edition. Paddington is now a major movie star!
Paddington Bear had travelled all the way from Darkest Peru when the Brown family first met him on Paddington station. Since then their lives have never been quite the same… for things just seem to happen to Paddington. Wherever there is excitement to be found, a flooded bathroom, menacing dumplings, or a bear overboard, Paddington is never far from the scene…
Buy On:
Easons €56.00
Bookshop.org UK £57.85
Bookshop.org US $17.64
Blackwells £40.00
Waterstones £69.90
Wordery $53.09
Q. Do you prefer reading on paper, Kindle or listening to an audiobook?
I like reading on paper AND listening to an audiobook. Paper books are great and I like to give (and receive) books as gifts too. Audiobooks are also great while commuting or driving long distances. I really like the audio version of our book, which was read with great enthusiasm.
Q. Do you have a favourite bookshop (and why that shop)?
In Oxford, I like Waterstones and Blackwell's. They are in the city centre as if to represent the importance of books in society! Also, they have a wide range of collections. I like picking up new books which titles that I didn't know. In the US, my all time favourite is Labyrinth Books in Princeton. As a graduate student, I often went there to check out the recent publications. I hope to see my book there, someday
Many thanks to Kate for recommending an great group of books! Please don't forget to check out The Secret Lives of Numbers: A Hidden History of Mathematics.
Daryl
Image Copyrights: Penguin Books Ltd (The Secret Lives of Numbers: A Hidden History of Mathematics), Ebury Publishing (Ideaflow: The Only Business Metric That Mattersh), Ebury Publishing (Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead), HarperCollins Publishers (Paddington: A Classic Collection).
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