Everything and More: A Compact History of Infinity
#966 of 2,654 all-time
Everything and More: A Compact History of Infinity
David Foster Wallace
7 people recommended it in 6 threads, 2011–2022.
What people on Hacker News said
If you're looking for a book that's both easy and stimulating to read, but that discusses a lot of mathematics in reasonable detail, I highly recommend the novelist David Foster Wallace's Everything and More: A Compact History of Infinity.
The way DFW can seamlessly transition from discussing a serious mathematical concept, to the nature of insanity, to the philosophy of abstraction all within a few pages is astounding. He somehow manages to do it while maintaining a conversational, two-folks-at-a-bar tone, teaching me dozens of new word, and being insightful/funny.
It was only by reading Everything and More a Compact History of Infinity, by, of all people, David Foster Wallace that I understood the motivation behind it! He explains how the ideas of infinity were developed, and which paradoxes and absurdities forced 19th century mathematicians like Cauchy to put the whole thing on a more rigorous footing.
It's a book on the history of math, focused around the story of math's struggle to deal with infinity. There's really nothing like it.
Where it comes up
- Classic Mathematics Books for Lifelong Learners 2019 · 2 recommendations
- Ask HN: Do you recall any book or course that made a topic finally click? 2022 · 1 recommendation
- Ask HN: Best books you read in the past decade? 2019 · 1 recommendation
- Ask HN: Are there books for mathematics like Feynman's lectures on physics? 2019 · 1 recommendation
- Ask HN: Books you read in 2016? 2016 · 1 recommendation
- Ask HN: Best book you read in 2011 2011 · 1 recommendation