Reading Beauty in Mathematics 01

I had heard of this book for a long time and finally bought it on another recommendation and a JD super discount. From the first page it felt like a revelation—perhaps because I had not read a technical book in a long time.

My first reactions:

• “So this is how math can be understood!”
• “So this formula is that powerful!”
• “My high school and college math was basically wasted!”

Then I read Wu Jun’s views on education and realized my elementary-school math had been wasted too!

Whenever Fred and I talked about our educations as teenagers, we agreed on several points. First, elementary and middle school students do not need to spend so much time reading; their social experience, life skills, and the ambitions they form then will help them for life. Second, courses that took much longer to study than peers in middle school can be finished much faster in college, because understanding is far stronger then. For example, what took 500 hours in middle school might take 100 in college. So a small advantage built in middle school is quickly lost in college. Third, learning (and education) is lifelong; many Asian students with strong middle-school grades underperform American peers who read out of interest, because the former lack sustained motivation. Fourth, book content can be learned early or late, but missed stages of growth cannot be recovered. (So gifted-youth programs are not ideal.) In good schools in China today, probably ninety-nine percent of children spend more time reading than I did, and far more than Jelinek—but perhaps ninety-nine percent will achieve less academically than I did, and far less than Jelinek. That is a mistake in education.

I sincerely recommend this to everyone who has studied math—I wish you had encountered it in high school. The explanation of math through technology can wait for the next post.

Simplicity is the most beautiful.

View technology from the perspective of the Tao.