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A review by amihanbooks
A Mathematician's Lament by Paul Lockhart
4.0
As someone who has always placed math as one of my least favorite subjects, this was thought-provoking and life-changing. I regret not growing up experiencing mathematics as an art form rather than rote memorization. I'm no mathematician, but when he said, "to do mathematics is to engage in an act of discovery and conjecture, intuition and inspiration, to be in a state of confusion, not because it makes no sense to you, but because you gave it sense and you still don't understand what your creation is up to; to have a breakthrough idea, to be frustrated as an artist; to be awed and overwhelmed by an almost painful beauty." I could definitely relate to this whenever I create something. I'm convinced!
That being said, he did tend to get a bit ~rambly~, oftentimes just plain ranting and making the same point over and over again. But it's okay! Everyone tends to ramble when they're passionate about something, and he has every right to be angry with the system.
However, I may be biased with this, but I'm going to have to disagree with him when he claimed "Mathematics allows more freedom of expression than poetry, art, or music. It is an art form more profound than any poem."
I didn't think there was any need to bash on other art forms in order to prove that mathematics is beautiful in and of itself. He had already made a perfectly sound argument as to why it is an art form, so I found it quite unnecessary to go further and claim math is superior to any other. But then again, he's a mathematician and I'm an art person, so to each their own. I do think all forms of art can be equally beautiful in their own ways though.
All in all, I highly recommend this to EVERYONE, whether you love math or not. Actually, ESPECIALLY if you hated math growing up. Mathematics deserves to be appreciated, and it's important to know that what we've been taught in school is not at all what it's really about. We've actually been taught the complete opposite. Read the book to find out what math is!
That being said, he did tend to get a bit ~rambly~, oftentimes just plain ranting and making the same point over and over again. But it's okay! Everyone tends to ramble when they're passionate about something, and he has every right to be angry with the system.
However, I may be biased with this, but I'm going to have to disagree with him when he claimed "Mathematics allows more freedom of expression than poetry, art, or music. It is an art form more profound than any poem."
I didn't think there was any need to bash on other art forms in order to prove that mathematics is beautiful in and of itself. He had already made a perfectly sound argument as to why it is an art form, so I found it quite unnecessary to go further and claim math is superior to any other. But then again, he's a mathematician and I'm an art person, so to each their own. I do think all forms of art can be equally beautiful in their own ways though.
All in all, I highly recommend this to EVERYONE, whether you love math or not. Actually, ESPECIALLY if you hated math growing up. Mathematics deserves to be appreciated, and it's important to know that what we've been taught in school is not at all what it's really about. We've actually been taught the complete opposite. Read the book to find out what math is!