"The Art of Mathematics" by Jerry P. King

An impressive title talking Mathematics inside out, its artistry, the typical lives of mathematicians and the education system in America.

Mathematics is the best thing that happened to humanity. Some of us have grown accustomed to it, while others don't seem to care. Hatred toward something you don't understand isn't the best way to live and approach things, and thanks to dabbling with computer programming—writing code—everything became crystal clear for us. This isn't to say that computer programming is key to loving Math, but from our experience, it helped (for others, how they came to love Math will be different). If we have found a way to love and embrace Math, anyone can. Here you are: Written by Jerry P. King, this is The Art of Mathematics!

It's nice when a book makes you feel welcome. Author King gets into the nitty-gritty about Math and everything it entails. This includes what it means to do Math and talking about Math. As you read, King mentions and discusses every corner there is about Math, people who study it, and mathematicians themselves. He then talks about what makes Math artistic and what mathematicians often do on a day-to-day basis. One thing that stood out to us was the obvious fact: Need for precision. Readers will learn that there's no vagueness or ideas that are too nuanced to be worded and explained as Math demands the truth—no ambiguities. Another one we liked and had a good laugh is that mathematicians spend lots of time alone thinking and thinking. Author King says so with this:

"When a mathematician works at mathematics he sits alone in his study staring at equations scribbled on his blackboard or at a dog-earred reprint of the research paper whose results he is trying to extend. It is quiet work, like writing poetry, and includes lots of 'dead time' when the mathematician, like a poet, does nothing but sit and stare at a blank page. When you walk in on a research mathematician and find him reclining with his feet up, gazing wistfully out the window, what you say is: 'Sorry, I didn't know you were working.' Because he probably is." (pgs. 36-37)

That was quite funny, though true since I tend to work in the same way even if my work is not Math-related. Anyone else work like this?

Along the way, readers will learn of axioms, rules, and logic that learners and aspiring mathematicians ought to know. Starting off, readers will get a better understanding with the pure aspect of mathematics. This isn't to say that applied mathematics isn't glamorous, even though King talked about it as well, but the applied space wouldn't have happened if its 'purity' didn't exist prior. Other than that, readers will familiarize themselves with both areas of mathematics and how they've evolved over time, as there have been debates about its purpose for years ("Philosophy of Mathematics," as it's called).

Our favorite part of this book was about aesthetics. Having mentioned that doing Math means some sort of appreciation for its artistry is something many people won't understand. It was a treat having to mention Plato on his philosophy about art—appreciating "Form." What this means is admiring the object itself and not its properties. It's amazing and thought we were one of the few that appreciated something as it is—"Form"—with regards to solving math problems, how they all sum up together down to the final answer. It's the longest chapter but it does speak a lot about artistry in Mathematics, though not necessary through geometric shapes or Venn diagrams. In fact, this chapter made us want to read more books by Plato! (We love extra inspiration like that when reading a book.)

On topic of such chapter, there's a lot to be said with regards to not only art that can be found in mathematics but also how it's taught. There's plenty King said about it, but not surprising given all that has gone on in the area of education since the release of this book back in 1992. To quote what King said about this shall wake many of us up:

"You can use mathematics and not appreciate it and—what is worse—you may be allowed to teach mathematics without understanding it at all. And, when you teach mathematics without understanding, you are unlikely to contribute to increasing the size of the mathworld public." (p. 175)

This statement we proudly quoted from King couldn't be further from the truth. Sure, many of us have had horror stories about teachers in how they teach, but this chapter from the book should wake people up. Given our world today, how about we work to fix the underlying problem above anything else—education, that is? Nowadays, a lot of people are doing all they can to avoid accountability, ashamed of being told, yelled at and scared of being humbled. It's like people don't want to learn anymore, just living in their echo chambers convincing themselves they know about the world by accessing their smart devices. Anyway, for us, it seems that this beautiful world needs more problem solvers—mathematicians. In education, it's about making students feel good about themselves, who are they and what they believe in, and not so much about learning the material anymore.

As someone who loves and embraces tech, we can't deny King's stance in how much technology is making us dumber; Just look at the behaviors of people on social media. How tough will students find it learning to write by hand and on paper again? While writing this, artificial intelligence (AI), or large language models (LLMs), are slowly killing off critical thinking. Looks like it's not getting better for kids today, so what is there to do now? Why learn when there's social media to tell you what's going on, instead of thinking for yourself?

We found another piece worth quoting from King, and he says this:

"There will come a time when mathematical ignorance, like public smoking, will become socially unacceptable." (p. 176)

The moment this comes will be a test of survival among the populace. Some wouldn't mind, while others will just throw in the towel not even trying. We wonder if tech companies, big and small who are reading this, would think if such idea is worth trying. Whether they do or not, we'll be fine here; We love math anyway and study it in our spare time. Nevertheless, just like how we credit one of the early social media platforms MySpace for getting users to learn and familiarize themselves with HTML, in designing and customizing their profiles, perhaps getting society to be mathematically proficient is introducing opportunities that challenge their mathematical literacy. I'm not sure how to go about maknig this happen, but this sounds like a great idea.

King then talks about politics in colleges and schools, as well as the typical views of a mathematician in where they stand. Oh boy, does this speak about school curriculum of today where King says this:

"The political persuasion of any collection of college professors has academic significance only if the politics works its way into the classroom. So long as a professor keeps his political views separate from his role as a teacher of impressionable youngsters, what he believes or does not believe is of no more concern to me than are the political leanings of my dentist. Unfortunately, a professor's politics often does appear in the classroom resulting in either a political indoctrination of the students or in a further diminishing of the students' respect for the educational process. Either way, the intrusion of professorial politics into the classroom is unfortunate at best and, at worst, unacceptable." (p. 233)

The truth has been spoken again. Certainly, such topic is of concern today but assured, having King mentioning this tells us it has been on-going since. With an ever-changing political landscape from the last ten years to today, this statement by King still holds ground. Judging what I've witnessed from things that friends and former coworkers have posted, these people indirectly bully others for "not caring about our future," yet hypocritically belittle and shame those whose views conflict with theirs (not an exaggeration and have seen this first-hand). It's clear to me that such people aren't concerned with our country's politics, but more of deep-rooted, personal issues they've never resolved expressed *as* as a social or political issue. Anyway, because people emotionally react when they hear something that conflicts or contradicts their own views makes this another part of the book worth reading. Politics is a sensitive topic, but it needs further clarification since many people voice out their insecurities than the issue(s) at hand. For that, it complicates things and steers things in directions that we shouldn't even be in the first place, but that's where we are today. To sum it up, insecurity is not a political issue; It's a mental, self-esteem issue. Such people need help finding happiness and contentment within, but that's a discussion they're not ready for.

Another favorite we liked was when King had a luncheon with professor assistants talking about an event that occurred not far from where he was at. King listened to the "debate" between these workers, one was a woman teaching sociology; the other was a man teaching physics. One had an emotional response to the event; the other responded logically—mathematically—and remained calm. Let's see if you knew who and which one reacted accordingly.

We could continue but this book is not only remarkable, but it's the most important book that bares reading. All that King has spoken about and mentioned is reflective of what's happening today, and it's time we addressed them. If not, then there's no reason to improve nor work on, well, anything, as if we're okay with suffering from our own demise and the collective betterment of humanity.

Anyway, this book is absolutely outstanding! Strongly recommended! Thank you for this great work, Mr. King!

Kris Caballero

Founder of KCU Network and KCU Plus, Kris has been writing since he started blogging in late 2005. Officially back to doing computer programming, Kris enjoys reading books on Mathematics, Quantum Computing, Philosophy, plus playing old video/MS-DOS games, digital video archiving, listening to sports, public radio and classical music.

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