title: A Numerate Life: A Mathematician Explores the Vagaries of Life, His Own and Probably Yours
author:  John Allen Paulos 
description: "There's nothing more enlightening than a view of life's nuances as seen through the lens of a mathematician. Especially when that mathematician is John Allen Paulos, a brilliant educator who persistently empowers the reader to think in ways that render transparent much of what is opaque in the world around us."<br /><br />NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON, Astrophysicist, American Museum of Natural History<br /><br /><i>A Numerate Life</i> is the engaging history of a mathematical mind. As always, John Paulos displays his genius for making the abstract and abstruse entirely intuitive.<br /> <br /> SYLVIA NASAR, author of <i>A Beautiful Mind</i><br /> <br /> A quirky and surprisingly poignant book about the struggle to make sense of ones own life story. With the help of logic and statistical reasoning, Paulos shines a light on the paradoxes and delusions that so often bedevil our remembrance of things past. Where Proust had his madeleine, Paulos has math.<br /> <br /> STEVEN STROGATZ, professor of mathematics, Cornell University, and author of <i>The Joy of X</i><br /> <i></i><br /> American editor Ellery Sedgwick wrote once that autobiographies ought to begin with Chapter Two. I believe that had he read <i>A Numerate Life</i>, he would have agreed that Chapter One is no less fascinating than any other chapter in this wonderful book. Pauloss life is a rich tapestry embroidered with mathematical gems.<br /> <br /> MARIO LIVIO, astrophysicist, author of <i>Brilliant Blunders </i>and <i>The Golden Ratio</i><br /> <br /> In this gripping page-turner, John Allen Paulos surprises us once again, with a memoir like no other memoir. He may not have made, as he claims, any seminal contributions to mathematics, but his impact on meta-mathematics, and the interface of math with the real world, far surpasses that of any single living mathematician. You will never be able to read biographies the same way again, since this is not yet-another-memoir, but a thought-provoking, path-breaking, meta-memoir and even anti-memoir.<br /> <br /> DORON ZEILBERGER, Board of Governors professor of Mathematics, Rutgers University, and winner of the Leroy P. Steele Prize and the Euler Medal in Mathematics
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  by Larry Enright
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Copyright © 2012 by Larry Enright
  
  All rights reserved. This material may not be reproduced, displayed, modified
  or distributed without the express prior written permission of the copyright
  holder. For permission, contact larryenright@rocketmail.com.
  
  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are
  either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any
  resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely
  coincidental.
  
  Cover design © 2012 Larry Enright
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  For the 6.8 billion
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  With Special Thanks to Cicely and Dan
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Preface
  
  The world ends for someone every day. One day it will end for everyone.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The Smartest Man on the Planet
  
  Dr. Philip Loeb was a theoretical mathematician. He had always said, without
  pretension of modesty, that he was the smartest man on the planet. At
  eighteen, he earned his first Ph.D. in mathematics, and three years later, a
  secon