thepixelroots

Well written and a good picture of Godel, his work, philosophy and the times he lived in. There would be more starts up there but for 2 reasons: 1 The book goes through thumbnail sketches of Godel's famous proofs and then a more involved version, but even after the more detailed explanation I still felt like I had only scratched the surface of it. Some of the things asserted about the process of Godel numbering seemed almost magical as a result. This is a tough balancing act for any popular take on technical subjects. (See David Foster Wallace's book on Cantor and Infinity for the same "Great Discoveries" Series if you want read more about the difficulties of writing a book like this.) Still, I wanted a little more. Since these proofs are crux of the book, this was disappointing. 2. The book spends surprising amount of time on Wittgenstein but he seems tangential at best to the story. It's interesting to read about him, but it felt tacked on.

2023-05-30 06:10