February Review

Wiresong March 09, 2024 #Review

Books

I read a bunch of pop-math books this month. Infinite Powers by Steven Strogatz was excellent; I also picked up The Joy of X, but I enjoyed it somewhat less. I also reread How Not to Be Wrong by Jordan Ellenberg, which is possibly the best pop-math book I've read, and perhaps the best math book i've read in general (only competing with Measurement by Paul Lockhart, although that's not pop-math at all).

I also read a fair amount of fiction. Saintess Summons Skeletons, Death After Death, and Industrial Strength Magic are all on Royalroad, and are pretty fun. (Note that, except Death after Death, the other two have the first few chapters as published books on Kindle, and consequently are unavailable on Royalroad. They are easily available if you have Kindle Unlimited, though).

Music

  1. My absolute favorite ppiece of music this month was Brakence's album Hypochondriac. I've listened to the whole thing, multiple times, and it's been an excellent piece of music to write to and program to and enjoy.
  2. Arijit Singh did a livestream in 2021, which I also find really nice.
  3. I was recently introduced to Bansi Jogi, who did an excellent rendition of Bam Lehri. I admit I don't understand the whole thing as well as I'd like to, but the performance is entrancing.
  4. The Moon Song from Her. I've heard the original, and it is good, but it doesn't quite have the impact that this song does for me.
  5. The Anirudh Varma Collective, a fusion band incorporating Hindustani/Carnatic classical music and western instruments, did a live online concert in 2023. My favorites are Naseeba, Saade Naal, and Shankara (timestamps in the comments). If you have time to listen to only one of these, listen to Shankara.

Misc

  1. POCORGTFO
  2. Why can't you multiply vectors? a nice talk, walking through the basics of geometric algebra (I...think; possibly the product used within is just a part of exterior algebra? unsure.)
  3. Related: The Case Against Geometric Algebra. Note that this speaks highly in favor of exterior algebra, it just has problems with the geometric product.