On the Shoulders of Giants

What Hacker News says

1. epsylonNov 2013
   Good maths proofs proceed step by step, with intermediate goals written in clear English (or French, for me). And to go from step to step, you don't need explicitly long names, just like you don't name your index loops "index_over_collection" but just i. Because your function will only be a few lines long.

   I actually really like mathematical notation. Once you get used to it, the terseness can make things a lot clearer than natural language.

   (If you've ever tried to read old mathematical articles / books that are a few centuries old, you'll understand the power of mathematical notation. Check out "God Created The Integers" or "On the Shoulders Of Giants" by Stephen Hawking if you're curious: these are two books that provide excerpts of highly influential works from earlier mathematicians and physicists, respectively)

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2. odammitOct 2017
   It will probably be a no for me as well. I read “on the shoulders of giants”[1] a few years ago and despite it being for a less super educated audience I was head scratching a few times.

   I just finished “astrophysics for people in a hurry“[2]. It was an awesome quick read.

   [1] https://www.amazon.com/Shoulders-Giants-Nicolaus-Copernicus/...

   [2] https://www.amazon.com/Astrophysics-People-Hurry-deGrasse-Ty...

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