The First Circle

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1. jamienkOct 2026
   Did anyone ever read The First Circle by Solzhenitsyn? It is amazing: in a Stalin gulag in the 1950's USSR, a bunch of Soviet engineers / techies are tasked with creating a speech recognition system. They show fake progress in order to keep from being jailed in worse ways. It is autobiographical, so good, but I read it so long ago and it convinced me how hard speech recognition would be, maybe even impossible!

   Highly recommended. I see there is a "new" (2009, I getting old) edition & translation - https://www.amazon.com/First-Circle-Aleksandr-I-Solzhenitsyn...

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2. gillsDec 2007
   The First Circle (Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn)

   LOTR

   Siddhartha (Hermann Hesse)

   The Odyssey (Homer)

   The Dilbert Principle (Scott Adams) -- Alright, not literature! But come on, it's Dilbert :)

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3. throwaway81523May 2025
   Nice. The mathematical connection to some of these is pretty thin.

   I'd add:

   Jeffrey Kegler, The God Proof (novel about a lost manuscript of Kurt Gödel)

   Norbert Wiener, The Tempter (novel about a patent troll math professor)

   Martin Gardner, The Magic Numbers of Dr Matrix (other Martin Gardner books are there)

   George Gamow, Mr. Tomkins in Wonderland (didactic about special relativity, there is other physics stuff on the list so why not)

   Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The First Circle -- I haven't read this but I think it had a mathematician character

   P. J. Plauger, Wet Blanket -- part of "Fighting Madness" series, about a physicst making universe-changing discoveries. The author is also a noted software developer who co-wrote at least two books with Brian Kernighan.

   Maybe a bit out there, but Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, not mathematical per se but has mathematical asides, and is informed by statistics and game theory.

   Others I'm not remembering, I'm sure.

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4. tomhebbronOct 2013
   The last 20% takes time because you're in the realm of the last inch.

   Now listen to the rule of the last inch. The realm of the last inch. The job is almost finished, the goal almost attained, everything possible seems to have been achieved, every difficulty overcome — and yet the quality is just not there. The work needs more finish, perhaps further research. In that moment of weariness and self-satisfaction, the temptation is greatest to give up, not to strive for the peak of quality. That’s the realm of the last inch — here, the work is very, very complex, but it’s also particularly valuable because it’s done with the most perfect means. The rule of the last inch is simply this — not to leave it undone. And not to put it off — because otherwise your mind loses touch with that realm. And not to mind how much time you spend on it, because the aim is not to finish the job quickly, but to reach perfection.

   From Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's book "In the First Circle".

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