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Index
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication Page
CONTENTS
Introduction: What's It All About?
CHAPTER 1: BULLY TEACHER, CHILDHOOD MATH
Some Early Estimates, Speculations
Pedagogy, Vanquishing Blowhards and Opponents, and Monopoly
Of Mothers and Collecting Baseball Cards
A Further Note on Math, Humor, and My Education
CHAPTER 2: BIAS, BIOGRAPHY, AND WHY WE'RE ALL A BIT FAR-OUT AND BIZARRE
Bias and Mindsets, Statistics and Biography
Despite Normal Appearances, We're All Strange
Misapplications of Mathematics to Everyday Life—A Caveat
CHAPTER 3: AMBITION VERSUS NIHILISM
Infinity, Sets, and Immortality
Selves and Absurdity
The Story of “I”—Neurons, Hallucinations, and Gödel
CHAPTER 4: LIFE'S SHIFTING SHAPES
Primitive Math, Life Trajectories, and Curve Fitting
The Environment as a Pinball Machine, the Quincunx of Life
Biographies and the Texas Sharpshooter
CHAPTER 5: MOVING TOWARD THE UNEXPECTED MIDDLE
A Few Touchstone Memories
Lunch, Good Night, and My Parents—Milwaukee in the 1950s
Logic, Jokes, and Adult Life as an Unexpected Punch Line
Memories and Benford's Law
CHAPTER 6: PIVOTS—PAST TO PRESENT
Kovalevsky, Prediction, and My Grandmother's Petty Larceny
Turning Points, Acadia to Kenya
Past Accomplishments versus Present Potential
CHAPTER 7: ROMANCE AMONG TRANS-HUMANS AND US CIS-HUMANS
Roboromance and the End of Biography
Choosing a Spouse, Meeting My Wife, Sheila
Romantic Crushes, Bayesian Statistics, and Life
Domestic Math: Toilet Seats, Up or Down; Movies, Early or Late
CHAPTER 8: CHANCES ARE THAT CHANCES ARE
If Only…Probability and Coincidences, Good, Bad, and Ugly
Innumeracy, A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper, and Their Aftermath
CHAPTER 9: LIVES IN THE ERA OF NUMBERS AND NETWORKS
How Many E-Mails, Where Did We Buy That—The Quantified Life
A Twitterish Approach to Biography
Scale and Predictability
CHAPTER 10: MY STOCK LOSS, HYPOCRISY, AND A CARD TRICK
My Stock Loss and a Few Pitfalls of Narrative Logic
One Cheer for Hypocrisy
Kruskal's Card Trick and Common Denouements
CHAPTER 11: BIOGRAPHIES: VERSTEHEN OR SUPERFICIAL
Consciousness, Biographies, and Shmata
Leah and Daniel, My Grandsons and I
Gompertz's Law of Human Mortality and Life Span
CHAPTER 12: TRIPS, MEMORIES, AND BECOMING JADED
Topology, Travel, and a Thai Taxi Driver
Experiencing versus Remembering Selves and Autobiographies
Peak Experiences, Record Setting, and the Path from Jade to Jaded
Joining My Father
Notes
Index
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