The Indian Clerk | Hacker News Reader

The Indian Clerk

nytimes.com

13 pointspaul_reiners11 comments

I read a book on Turing by the author .. and well .. I dont recommend it at all. He seems overly obsessed with sexual themes has no understanding of the hacker and scientist mindsets and no understanding of the maths whatsoever. After reading that book, I am not thinking of even looking at this book. edit : At least they explicitly claim this book is a novel. The one on Turing masquerades as a biography.

I haven't read Leavitt’s book on Turing, so I can't comment on it.

I have read "Alan Turing: The Enigma" by Andrew Hodges, which was excellent, both in the biographical details and the mathematical details.

Yes i picked up Hodges' book later and I also recommend it.

I read the new york times article. I get the feeling that it draws too much attention to the personal, emotional relationships of Hardy, Ramanujan and others and dilutes the genius each one of them were. It definitely would be a good read once you are through with the brief introduction into their professional lives.

I myself being too obsessed with mathematics loved this biography of Ramanujan - The Man Who Knew Infinity: A Life of the Genius Ramanujan. ISBN:0671750615

I agree with you that it does draw a lot of attention to the personal, emotional relationships of Hardy, Ramanujan, Littlewood, and so on. But, for someone who has already read and loved "A Mathematician's Apology" and studied math in college, reading about these personalities can be quite fascinating. Of course, since this is a novel, it's hard to say what is surmise, what is fact, and what is invented. I never was able to find much biographical material on Hardy (I was only able to find 2 pictures of him (this was in the 80s before Google)).

I need to read the book on Ramanujan you mentioned, though.

I remember reading in Nobel laureate S.Chandrasekhar's biography,that the Royal Society's records on Ramanujam would be made public.It's long past that date.I wonder what happened.

Have any of you read "Meta Math!: The Quest for Omega" by Gregory Chaitin? I just started it and so far its fascinating.

I'm about half-way through it. I put it down for awhile and just started reading it again. There are nice sections on Lisp and Gödel in it. It's a good book.

This book has been out for awhile, but I just started reading it and am having a hard time putting it down. If you're interested in G.H. Hardy or Ramanujan, you should definitely read it. Of course, it's a novel, but the portrait of Hardy is fascinating.

Added it to my list. Looks like a lot of fun. Thanks!

what's the point of this post? why is any of this interesting????? what am I missing?

why would anyone care to read "fictions" about sexual inclinations of big minds (Hardy and undoubtedly huge mind of Ramanujan) when we don't even know/understand completely the works of these great minds?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com