Letters to a Young Mathematician

A few months ago I was intrigued after a reading a review of Ian Stewart's tome of guidance to a young woman starting her mathematical career. Stewart, an accomplished mathematician also has the ability to write about math without dumbing it down but still make it comprehensible to someone with very basic understanding of the subject. Flatterland, his sequel to Flatland is a good read and increased my understanding of multiple dimensional theories. The first few chapters of Letters to a Young Mathematician, addressed to Meg before she decides on studying math at the university are easily the best part. Stewart takes on discussing how math is taught in schools, why it's hard to teach well, and why it usually comes off as boring to the students. He doesn't have many answers but he raises a lot of good points and could easily fill a whole book on the subject. As Meg progresses through her career Stewart continues to advise her candidly pointing out the good and bad of committees, conferences, multi-authored papers and tenure track professorship. Without being preachy Stewart gets to the heart of the matter and has a good understanding of how the world really works. It's an interesting read for any of the academic types likely to pick it up, I'd certainly recommend it.

Oh and did you know Flatland the movie is out now on DVD!