OT: I have a copy of The Annotated Alice; I revisit it every couple of years. It's not maths, although Charles Dodgson was a mathematician. Gardner's marginalia bring the books to life.
Ask HN: Why Martin Gardner is no longer popular?
11–17 of 17 posts
Re: Ask HN: Why Martin Gardner is no longer popular?
#12He's a decade deceased, so that's probably not helping his popularity... But I'd argue he is still popular, though the very nature of what "popularity" means has changed even since he passed, so I don't know honestly how to really even address the comparison to modern "YouTube" stars.
When I was a kid, I didn't know he was alive when I read his books.
Sure, but he knew he was alive, and being alive is a huge advantage if you want to address interesting topics in a way that matches well with readers of the time period you're currently in.
Being alive, generally, is useful for reaching audiences. Not everyone needs to be alive to do this, but it really does help, you know...
Re: Ask HN: Why Martin Gardner is no longer popular?
#13Locking his work behind a paywall doesn't help.
Thank you Scientific American.
Re: Ask HN: Why Martin Gardner is no longer popular?
#14Well, I picked up the Colossal Book of Mathematics[1] by him after hearing about it and I'm having a lot of fun with it myself (it's just a bunch of really interesting math topics written really well, that are sparking my game designer brain), but yeah, he's not as discoverable today, in part because he's no longer living and people consume things a bit differently today.
But someone could help promote his work again, by taking his articles and making Youtube videos of them, and give credit to him and urge people to check out his articles and books.
[1]: https://www.amazon.com/Colossal-Book-Mathematics-Paradoxes-P...
Re: Ask HN: Why Martin Gardner is no longer popular?
#15Here's a list of the SciAm articles, which I assume were the gateway to his books - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Martin_Gardner_Mathema... One of the most iconic, John Conway's game of life wouldn't be an article today, it'd be swamped by many authors quickly. But many articles still seem unique. Can the hard slogs survive when the icing is gone? Really I think it's just down to most kids don't get stuck in…
I believe many of his books (at least, those which I picked up, I know he wrote many more) were collections of his Scientific American "Mathematical Games" columns.
And as a bit of trivia - when Douglas Hofstadter (of Gödel Escher Bach) took over the slot in the early 1980s, he renamed it to the anagrammatic "Metamagical Themas".
Re: Ask HN: Why Martin Gardner is no longer popular?
#16Because he doesn't have a youtube channel (though you can hardly blame him...)
Recreational mathematics is featured a lot on youtube. Channels like stand up maths. Some of the topics Martin Gardner wrote about are being covered again in this new medium.
Re: Ask HN: Why Martin Gardner is no longer popular?
#17Well, first I'd want to confirm or not the assumption in the question: Isn't he? Popular compared with when? etc.
> Well, first I'd want to confirm or not the assumption in the question: Isn't he?
Well, go ahead. It's easy to do, by a dozen methods.
HN has too many people who attempt to look wise by doubting things without cause, when the actual wise thing is not to discuss your doubts, but to address them
Unfortunately, the normal behavior is invisible, so people randomly admonishing one another gains the false appearance of being regular
.
> Popular compared with when?
The past.
The sentence makes this clear and unambiguous, as does our lack of time travel.