Innumeracy
by John Allen Paulos
I was never a good student in high school, I just couldn’t pay attention. How would math, or history, or English help me beat the second racing level in Battletoads? I had priorities elsewhere, I guess. Do I feel bad about it? Of course I do. But not as bad as I do for the people I met when I moved to the US. Boy, the very idea of math scares them. I’ve always been a dummy, but I could still use basic math to problem-solve. Years later, when I was working at a bigger scientific company, I wanted to assure my team of more junior colleagues of how some simple math would be beneficial for our experiments. “Math is our friend,” I assured them. I got some eye rolls back and mutters of, “Math is not MY friend.” Sheesh!
It’s this kind of phenomenon that John Allen Paulen addresses in Innumeracy: the idea that some of us have an aversion to math which is preventing us from solving some of the basic problems in our lives. I fully agree with Paulen when he says that we should be embracing any field which helps us gain a better understanding of the world around us. Some would even say that math is the only way to know what’s actually true. It’s the basis of quantum physics…I guess?
Innumeracy’s focus is to address the question: when am I ever going to use advanced math in my daily life? Well, maybe not complicated calculus and cycloids, but some basic algebra is incredibly applicable. Paulos goes through numerous examples (many of which deal with probability), such as gambling, health-scams, political odds, get-rich-quick-schemes, and even romantic scenarios to show that using a little math helps us gain a better understanding of how we beneficial or harmful they could be. It’s an easy and friendly read, and applicable even 40 years after it was written.
There’s nothing revolutionary here. Innumeracy is just a very fun book which showcases how math can be applied and help us lead better and happier lives. I kind of wish I could give it to those coworkers I talked about earlier… as a friendly gesture, of course.
