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What Would You Recommend to a Bright 14 Year Old?

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Re: What Would You Recommend to a Bright 14 Year Old?

#11

Post by tjr »

Professor E McSquared's Calculus Primer: http://www.math.sjsu.edu/~swann/mcsqrd.html -- I actually was poking around my mom's copy when I was about seven or so, but didn't start understanding it until later. The comics made me interested in the content, and I think was a key factor in my growing up enjoying math rather than despising it.

The Hacker's Dictionary: http://catb.org/jargon/ -- was similarly influential in my finding the joy and excitement in software development. I had come to enjoy it on my own already, but reading this (in printed form, at the time) helped me get a broader perspective. It's admittedly quite outdated now, but I'm not sure what a newer replacement might be.

Re: What Would You Recommend to a Bright 14 Year Old?

#15

Post by saosebastiao »

How to Solve It - George Polya. While the content is focused on solving math problems, and those math problems might be on the higher end of what a 14yo would learn in school, the lessons behind it are applicable to any form of problem solving. I discovered the book in my late 20's and wish I had read it in high school.

Re: What Would You Recommend to a Bright 14 Year Old?

#16

Post by jarin »

bsenftner wrote: post #7

Hermann Hesse's "The Glass Bead Game" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Glass_Bead_Game is a physiological science fiction story about a future world where an economic simulation determines who will run the planet, and the book features the live of one individual that won the competition every year for decades via integrating math, music, eastern and western philosophies to create a harmonic economic view. The book is…

Reading the synopsis on Wikipedia reminded me a lot thematically of Anathem, by Neal Stephenson. Also a great book, but I think it requires a broader knowledge of history, philosophy, math, etc. than a 14 year old might have had the opportunity to encounter. Then again, there's a glossary in the back that maps in-universe concepts to real-world concepts, so the novel might be a good springboard into exploring those topics independently.

Re: What Would You Recommend to a Bright 14 Year Old?

#17

Post by jarin »

arh68 wrote: post #2

I'm not going to self-nominate myself as 'bright', but I liked these 3 books when I was 14ish: What do you care what other people think? by Richard Feynman. Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson. Flatland , by Edwin Abbott.

What do you care what other people think? is a great book, but I'd recommend starting with Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman first.

Re: What Would You Recommend to a Bright 14 Year Old?

#18

Post by JoshTriplett »

tjr wrote: post #11

Professor E McSquared's Calculus Primer : http://www.math.sjsu.edu/~swann/mcsqrd.html -- I actually was poking around my mom's copy when I was about seven or so, but didn't start understanding it until later. The comics made me interested in the content, and I think was a key factor in my growing up enjoying math rather than despising it. The Hacker's Dictionary : http://catb.org/jargon/ -- was similarly influential…

> Professor E McSquared's Calculus Primer: http://www.math.sjsu.edu/~swann/mcsqrd.html -- I actually was poking around my mom's copy when I was about seven or so, but didn't start understanding it until later. The comics made me interested in the content, and I think was a key factor in my growing up enjoying math rather than despising it.

I had a similar experience with "Calculus the Easy Way", and its predecessors "Algebra the Easy Way" and "Trigonometry the Easy Way", all of which I'd highly recommend. They teach the topics as though being invented for the first time by a kingdom finding themselves in need of them.

Re: What Would You Recommend to a Bright 14 Year Old?

#19

Post by [deleted] »

jarin wrote: post #16
bsenftner wrote: post #7

Hermann Hesse's "The Glass Bead Game" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Glass_Bead_Game is a physiological science fiction story about a future world where an economic simulation determines who will run the planet, and the book features the live of one individual that won the competition every year for decades via integrating math, music, eastern and western philosophies to create a harmonic economic view. The book is…

Reading the synopsis on Wikipedia reminded me a lot thematically of Anathem, by Neal Stephenson. Also a great book, but I think it requires a broader knowledge of history, philosophy, math, etc. than a 14 year old might have had the opportunity to encounter. Then again, there's a glossary in the back that maps in-universe concepts to real-world concepts, so the novel might be a good springboard into exploring those t…

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