links

The game I knew in childhood as Sheep in Pens. I’ve got one math link and one meta-science link this month. Math: I’m excited about Ben Orlin’s forthcoming book of math games. Ben loves math and puns. He’s witty and perceptive. His post on being stuck is something I’ve included in work trainings to explain how data analysts should think. Science: Then there’s Bruce Charlton’s longform essay Not Even Trying: The Corruption of Real Science.

An interference pattern from a laser in a double slit experiment. As one of my college classmates said, when I entered college, I thought I knew 10% of all the math in the world. Four years and 17 classes later, I thought I knew 1% of all the math in the world. Then I went to grad school, and now I only think I know 0.1%. The more you climb, the better you can see all the mountains you haven’t visited yet.

Portrait of a Family by Cornelis de Vos. A lot of the links I’ve saved in the past six months concern the broader topic of families. Here’s a top ten from May to this week: Noah Millman comments on parenthood and fertility rates. Amazing insight into, and compassion for, the way our culture fears the future. It’s also the best treatment I’ve seen of the climate change fear.