Thinking Better : The Art of the Shortcut in Math and Life

One of the world's great mathematicians shows why math is the ultimate timesaver—and how everyone can make their lives easier with a few simple shortcuts. We are often told that hard work is the key to success. But success isn’t about hard work – it’s about shortcuts. Shortcuts allow us to solve one problem quickly so that we can tackle an even bigger one. They make us capable of doing great things. And according to Marcus du Sautoy, math is the very art of the shortcut. Thinking Better is a celebration of how math lets us do more with less. Du Sautoy explores how diagramming revolutionized therapy, why calculus is the greatest shortcut ever invented, whether you must really practice for ten thousand hours to become a concert violinist, and why shortcuts give us an advantage over even the most powerful AI. Throughout, we meet artists, scientists, and entrepreneurs who use mathematical shortcuts to change the world. Delightful, illuminating, and above all practical, Thinking Better is for anyone who has wondered why you should waste time climbing the mountain when you could go around it much faster. "Hard work, we are often told, is the key to success. Putting in the effort, doing things the "right way," even if it's the long way. But according to Marcus du Sautoy, this common wisdom has it backwards. The key to success isn't hard work-it's shortcuts. We make the most progress when we find clever ways to do more with less. And there is no better way of finding shortcuts than math. Math is all about minimizing the amount of work you have to do in order to solve a problem while still arriving at the correct answer. In TK, du Sautoy offers a celebration of the life-changing magic of approaching problems in this way. He shows how the same pattern shortcuts that help us understand the evolution of the universe can also help restaurants minimize food waste, how analyzing slime mold patterns can improve public transit, how diagramming makes therapy more effective, and why calculus, arguably the greatest shortcut ever invented, helps make businesses more resilient to economic shocks. Of course, there are some things in life that don't have shortcuts like mastering a musical instrument. Fortunately, du Sautoy has a shortcut that can help you figure that out too. long the way, he speaks with he artists, scientists, doctors, and engineers whose voices help readers understand how they can make better use of shortcuts in their own lives. Du Sautoy is quick to point out that shortcuts aren't about being idle or unambitious. Quite the opposite, shortcuts are what make humans capable of great things, more powerful than even the most advanced artificial intelligence. Computers can analyze a vast trove of data and answer questions about it in a matter of seconds, but they can only operate within the rules they're given. A good shortcut allows us to rewrite the rules, to find a way of solving a problem that allows us to tackle a new, even bigger one. Isaac Newton, once said, "If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants." Shortcuts are the ladder that helped him up"-- Provided by publisher **One of the world's great mathematicians shows why math is the ultimate timesaver—and how everyone can make their lives easier with a few simple shortcuts.**__Thinking Better____Thinking Better__