Reviews

When Einstein Walked with Gödel: Excursions to the Edge of Thought by Jim Holt

alfredojose's review

challenging hopeful informative reflective slow-paced

4.0

michaelgauchat's review against another edition

challenging informative inspiring reflective relaxing medium-paced

4.0

benrogerswpg's review against another edition

4.0

Very good book.

Enjoyed all the math!

Learned a lot about these two thinkers' relationship.

Very interesting.

Thanks to my Book Club Discord for recommending this!

4.0/5

tmnorth's review

4.0

some essays were miles better than others, but i’m sad i’ve finished them all now. quite an enjoyable read—it inspired several very interesting conversations

etopiei's review

challenging informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

This was a really great read! I enjoyed a lot of the chapters and essays and learnt a lot.

n0ztra's review

challenging informative slow-paced

3.5

mcgovey's review

informative medium-paced

4.5

sritchie's review

3.0

I thought that this book would be so up my alley; I've been on a reading kick of modern math and mathematical history, and what better clickbait than a picture of two studs, Einstein and Gödel, walking around Princeton?

Not much about these essays stuck in my mind. The themes of the book were interesting, but the interleaving of very light mathematical detail with stories of the personalities involved just did not mix into anything gripping.

I'd recommend skipping this and picking up either of the two Quanta Magazine books:

[b:The Prime Number Conspiracy: The Biggest Ideas in Math from Quanta|39644283|The Prime Number Conspiracy The Biggest Ideas in Math from Quanta|Thomas Lin|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1533018816l/39644283._SX50_.jpg|61216269], or
[b:Alice and Bob Meet the Wall of Fire: The Biggest Ideas in Science from Quanta|39644282|Alice and Bob Meet the Wall of Fire The Biggest Ideas in Science from Quanta|Thomas Lin|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1533038306l/39644282._SX50_.jpg|61216268].

crispymerola's review

adventurous challenging informative inspiring medium-paced

3.25

Furn hodgepodge of essays from Jim's writing career, often focused more on the scientific community than scientific ideas themselves. The stories in here are often a fun reminder that tribalism, pettiness, and hero worship are running rampant in even the most rational of human camps. 

Somewhere across these pages I encountered "truth is just bullshit that's lost its stench," a gorgeous distillation of everything that results from toxic positivity + cultish behavior, my two favorite red flags, my teddy bear twins. 

Because this is just a series of essays, some repeated information and a general lack of cohesion makes this an uneven read - albeit one that's still more than worthwhile.

kahawa's review

4.0

This wasn't what I was expecting (which was more on Einstein and Gödel), but I enjoyed this quite a bit. Holt covered the major ideas of philosophy, science and mathematics. It was a journey through the extremeties of human thought [I just realised that the sub-title is 'Excursions to the Edge of Thought :)]. These are the topics that I would discuss with a friend, if I had a friend who would discuss them! Holt is easy to read and not pushy of any particular position, although he does push back on certain ideas and ideologies. I'd happily read his other books.