
The Art of Insight in Science and Engineering: Mastering Complexity (2014) [pdf] - kercker
http://ocw.mit.edu/resources/res-6-011-the-art-of-insight-in-science-and-engineering-mastering-complexity-fall-2014/online-textbook/MITRES_6-011F14_art_insfin.pdf
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nrubin
I took a version of this class (called The Art of Approximation) with Dr.
Mahajan when he was a visiting professor at Olin College. The course helped me
become fearless about tackling a broad range of math problems I knew little
about, and has helped me in countless real life situations from financial
planning to major work decisions.

Also, it's a great intro on good ways to nail PM interviews, at least at
Google (where I now work, thanks in no small part to the lessons from this
class).

If you have a spare few hours, read this book or take his classes on edX.
It'll absolutely change your intuition for numbers.

~~~
Aeolus98
Oh cool. I'm actually in Olin now, and even better, taking his class as I type
this post.

Art of approximation [https://imgur.com/a/OvDzl](https://imgur.com/a/OvDzl)

I'll pass along any cool questions.

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ivan_ah
An earlier book from the same author: [https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/street-
fighting-mathematics](https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/street-fighting-
mathematics)

~~~
gk101
In fact he has a course on edx for this: [https://www.edx.org/course/street-
fighting-math-mitx-6-sfmx](https://www.edx.org/course/street-fighting-math-
mitx-6-sfmx)

~~~
iamcreasy
Thank you very much for posting this.

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clm
I went to graduate school at Caltech; my time there intersected with SM for
about a year, but I only learned about that when he had already graduated.

In one of the rooms in the physics building (E. Bridge), there used to be a
few shelves with old theses. While checking them out one day (probably trying
to kill time before a seminar), I came across Sanjoy's thesis. It was a
curious little thing, unlike any of the other theses I had seen---a bit of a
hybrid between a PhD thesis and a textbook, and remarkably, very readable.

That thesis was, apparently, the first version of his now famous book, Street-
Fighting Mathematics. After getting lost in it for a while, I went and asked
the administrative assistant if I could get a copy, and she said nobody cares
about those volumes on the shelves, and I could just take it if I wanted. I
still have that copy with me.

One year I attempted to audit the (somewhat legendary) class that the book
part of SM's thesis was based on---"Order of magnitude physics", taught by P.
Goldreich and S. Phinney. Unfortunately, the lectures were in the morning, and
I managed to wake up early enough only a few times, and dropped out
afterwards.

I continued to collect material on related topics over the years, and am still
hoping to use them some day in a course, together with SM's books.

~~~
sn9
After a bit of Googling, I believe I have found a copy of this thesis [0].

[0] [http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/sanjoy/thesis/thesis-
lett...](http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/sanjoy/thesis/thesis-letter.pdf)

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cJ0th
What a great find! I didn't even dream of a book like this. Thank you for
sharing!

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andrzejsz
How come this book is available on download I mean what about copyright?

~~~
detaro
It's under a license that allows freely sharing it for non-commercial
purposes.

~~~
HCIdivision17
I've wondered about this: when it says non-commercial purposes, does that mean
me downloading a copy to read for my work, or me printing and selling?

I haven't any problem buying it, since it's useful for my job, but that
distinction has been a bit fuzzy to me (and I'll normally just err on the side
of buy, just to be safe).

~~~
denzil_correa
Commercial would mean you make a gain from distribution of the book. Money can
be one of the gains.

~~~
HCIdivision17
Thanks - distribution vs consumption always mix me up with the copyright
rules.

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christouphair
What are the prerequisites to understand this book? I feel very intimidated by
some equations.

~~~
sn9
Comfort with freshman physics and math is really all that's required.

You can always review those first.

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geohump
The irony of a an article claiming to master complexity while using one of the
worst choices of information dissemination. PDF's. Palpable.

~~~
danso
Besides it being a book, not sure what the irony is here. PDF is a poor way to
disseminate information via the web, but excellent for distributing
information in a container that you envision as uniform and universal -- in
this case, paper. The responsive variable nature of a browser window can
sometimes do screwy things to a well planned layout.

