Scan barcode
Reviews
Sleight of Mind: 75 Ingenious Paradoxes in Mathematics, Physics, and Philosophy by Matt Cook
sbenzell's review against another edition
5.0
4.5 stars rounded up for its weirdness
Do you think paradoxes are to be steeped in? Koans to be meditated on as one’s mind merges with the universe? YOURE WRONG. PARADOXES are scholastic obfuscations of the weak minded that MUST BE OVERCOME with LOGIC! Any Rand told me so! A good alternate title would have been “All Paradoxes Must be Destroyed”.
Let’s start with that point because it’s a big source of the books weirdness. It’s clearly saturated with Rand’s very naive metaphysics. Questions have ANSWERS, concepts have REAL REFERENTS. But it gives the book such a Yankee, can-do, energy that propels you through as the puzzles get subtler and subtler. It also means that the book is very good at getting to the point (or at least, a point) where a worse book would hem and haw.
The paradoxes themselves? Of the 75, some are real treasures, especially the probability ones. The only chapter that I really thought was a bust was quantum mechanics — the discussion of bells experiment was the only one in the book I’d call “half hearted”.
Anyway, highly recommended if you like these kinds of things! A unique collection with a unique authorial voice.
Do you think paradoxes are to be steeped in? Koans to be meditated on as one’s mind merges with the universe? YOURE WRONG. PARADOXES are scholastic obfuscations of the weak minded that MUST BE OVERCOME with LOGIC! Any Rand told me so! A good alternate title would have been “All Paradoxes Must be Destroyed”.
Let’s start with that point because it’s a big source of the books weirdness. It’s clearly saturated with Rand’s very naive metaphysics. Questions have ANSWERS, concepts have REAL REFERENTS. But it gives the book such a Yankee, can-do, energy that propels you through as the puzzles get subtler and subtler. It also means that the book is very good at getting to the point (or at least, a point) where a worse book would hem and haw.
The paradoxes themselves? Of the 75, some are real treasures, especially the probability ones. The only chapter that I really thought was a bust was quantum mechanics — the discussion of bells experiment was the only one in the book I’d call “half hearted”.
Anyway, highly recommended if you like these kinds of things! A unique collection with a unique authorial voice.
stephang18's review
3.0
Most of the time, using math is like killing a fly with a sledgehammer. Somewhat ponderous.
More...