Joy of Abstraction

What Hacker News says

1. 363849473754Jul 2026
   F. William Lawvere - Conceptual Mathematics: A First Introduction to Categories

   Eugenia Cheng - The Joy of Abstraction: An Exploration of Math, Category Theory, and Life

   She builds up to the category theory chapters.

   Book club: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhgq-BqyZ7i7tEEQVG5rlOG8y...

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2. marai2Dec 2025
   1. Why Machines Learn - Anil Ananthaswamy

   Fantastic exposition of machine learning. The author does an amazing job of bringing a technical subject down to an easily readable level.

   2. The Joy of Abstraction - Eugenia Cheng

   Similar to the above review. I never thought Category Theory could be made so easily readable!

   3. A Little History of Philosophy - Nigel Warburton

   Small, compact book. A quick interesting jaunnt through the history of philosophy. Entertaining and educational!

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3. codeismathAug 2025
   Books. Some books on my shelf covering these topics:

   "Type Theory and Functional Programming" by Simon Thompson (PDF available via quick search)

   First 120 pages of "Type Theory and Formal Proof" by Rob Nederpelt / Herman Geuvers

   For some early stuff on dependent types (also covered in the above), check out "Intuitionistic Type Theory" by Per Martin-Lof

   "Computation and Reasoning: A Type Theory for Computer Science" by Zhaouhui Luo

   "Type-Driven Development with Idris" by Edwin Brady

   "Gentle Introduction to Dependent Types with Idris" by Boro Sitnikovski

   "Types and Programming Languages" by Pierce

   "Practical Foundations for Programming Languages" by Robert Harper (or any of his YouTube videos re/Type Theory)

   "The Little Typer" by Friedman and Christiansen

   "Modal Homotopy Type Theory: The Prospect of a New Logic for Philosophy" by David Corfield (just took this one to OBX North Carolina to enjoy on my beach vacation last week! Got some salt water in those pages. Also speaks to Category Theory.)

   For Category Theory:

   "The Joy of Abstraction" (2023) by Euginia Cheng

   "Basic Category Theory for Computer Scientists" by Benjamin C. Pierce

   "Conceptual Mathematics: A first introduction to categories" by Lawvere and Schanuel

   "Categories for the Working Philosopher" by Landry

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4. eigenhombreJul 2024
   My very first was Naive Set Theory by Paul Halmos. Way over my head in 7th(?) grade but my first intro to math beyond pre-algebra stuff.

   Lately I've enjoyed, but did not finish, the Joy of Abstraction by Eugenia Cheng, on category theory. And there was a differential geometry book whose name I have forgotten but whose exercises I really enjoyed, because I could do them in my head while riding the bus, just by thinking about them.

   I'm not particularly well read on mathematics (had a lot of math in college, hardly any since) but I would like to circle back to reading more at some point.

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5. gmadsenJun 2024
   there are a few books that make it accessible to non mathematicians. Both by Eugenia Cheng, "How to Bake Pi" and "The Joy of Abstraction"
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6. chithanhJun 2024
   Very nice. Also recommended reading is Eugenie Cheng, The Joy of Abstraction[1] which emphasizes diagram chasing to visualize abstract relationships.

   [1] https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108769389

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