
Happy 95th Birthday, Martin Gardner - fogus
http://lingpipe-blog.com/2009/10/20/happy-95th-birthday-martin-gardner/
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RiderOfGiraffes
Martin Gardner was a huge influence on me too - it's largely due to that early
influence that I have a PhD in Pure Math, and now go out to schools to show
how and why math can be fun, exciting, engaging, confusing and rewarding, all
in equal measure.

I hope I'm carrying on his tradition. I still dip into his books for
inspiration, and aspire to write as clearly, elegantly and above all
effectively as he did and still does.

Happy Birthday ,Martin Gardner!

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slackenerny
I grew to like Gardner's writings somewhat now. They however, indirectly, had
almost devastating effect on my earlier life, promoting sort of mathematics I
never could do.

There is "bag of tricks" culture of mathematics
(<http://www.dpmms.cam.ac.uk/~wtg10/2cultures.pdf>) where one often stands no
chance against a "tricky" problem without prior acquaintance with "tricky"
sort of shortcut principle. I was always too slow and never grokked or scored
this sort of mathematics. I barely found anything profound or beautiful in
Gardner's SciAm columns. They were scary like black magic more than they were
interesting. My teachers all from this school just bashed me and didn't told
me there is richer structured, theoretical and constructive side to
mathematics. The same year I qualified to the International Physics Olympiad I
got _non passing_ grade in mathematics, at which point I dropped out of HS,
went to do what unexpectedly turned out _mathematical_ physics and now I'm for
a degree in pure mathematics, several tantalizing years later than if my
teachers were not so enchanted by Gardner's tricks.

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RiderOfGiraffes
That's fascinating - thank you for sharing it.

I travel a lot, speaking to students all over the UK and beyond, and I've
found something. Sometimes to get the audience hooked I'll present a cute
little something that's odd, unexpected, or counter-intuitive. Many of the
students light up wanting to know more.

But others find their intuition challenged and get very defensive. The result
is that they are completely turned off, unwilling to engage. For them I need
to take a step back and show that there is ordinary stuff that is of itself
intriguing - challenging and fun.

It sounds like you needed to be given more structure, more development, more
flow. It's there, but most school teachers don't know about it.

My wife says the impression she was left with from school was that math is
just a bag of rules with no unifying theme. The "bag of tricks" is a similar
problem.

I hope you're now starting to see the beauty and elegance that comprises the
main body, as opposed to the cute wrinkles.

I'd welcome an email from you if you're interested. If you reply to this we'll
work out a way to get in touch.

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slackenerny
Thanks :)

I now know the structure, that's why I "grew" to appreciate Gardner nowadays
(albeit now I also find he's doing many things "simple as possible and even
simpler" (contrary to the Einstein quote) and thus... still unnecessarily
convoluted, so I'm not sure if I like him already).

I know your email, but have nothing of value to say ;]

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RiderOfGiraffes
As I found for myself, Gardner (and his approach) is not for everyone. You're
one of the others. I'm trying to create material that's not "tricks" and
stuff, and is more aimed at people in your position. Partly because I think
I'm better at that, and partly to complement the other approach.

I'm pleased you've found something you like, and wish you the best.

EDIT: for clarity.

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drcode
My local library in Germany had some of his translated books when I was a kid-
Those books, along with my TI99/4A, had a greater influence on my intellectual
life than anything else in my past.

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jacquesm
I have a collection of Scientific Americans dating back to the 60's, there are
lots of nice pieces by him in some of those issues.

Recreational Mathematics is more or less his 'invention', and I'm sure that
through his column he managed to engage lots of people and got them to play
with numbers.

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joeycfan
I walked around my high school in the 70s with a flexagon in my pencil case
that I cut out of paper and put together.

