Genius at Play
The Curious Mind of John Horton Conway
by Siobhan Roberts · first published 2015
11mentions
8recommended by
10HN commenters
2015–2025first – last mentioned
80% recommend20% neutral
Why HN recommends it
A warm, readable biography of mathematician John Conway, suited to curious readers interested in recreational math and creative minds. It is a fun, well-told story that stays light on heavy math.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Presents the life and accomplishments of the mathematician who inveted game theory, focusing on his quirky and nontraditional methods of teaching at Princeton University.
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This is an extract from the new biography of Conway, Genius at Play, which I'd thoroughly recommend if you found this interesting.
on “John Conway – The world’s most charismatic mathematician” ↗The April Fool's piece from a few years ago mentions that there is a biography, which was published as "Genius At Play: The Curious Mind of John Horton Conway" by Siobhan Roberts. I'm sure that would be a good read.
on “John Conway has died” ↗…Princeton to see a couple of them, and it was awesome. He was a bit shaky at first because he had just had a health scare, but he soon got into the swing of things. I would highly recommend the biography: "Genius At Play: The Curious Mind of John Horton Conway" by Siobhan Rob. It is a lot of fun! [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbifold_notation [2] https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0604079
on “John Conway has died” ↗This particular obituary is from Siobhan Roberts, who wrote a well regarded biography of Conway, "Genius at Play" (https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/22529392-genius-at-pl...). I recommend it highly, even if you have read others.
on “John Horton Conway, a ‘Magical Genius’ in Math, Dies at 82” ↗…heavy-hitters of mid-century physics. The format was surprisingly narrative, makes me wish I wrote as many personal longer-form letters with family and friends. Also Siobhan Roberts' biography of Conway, Genius at Play[1], told another great story. Low on math content but Conway's personality and the narrators attempts to corral it were quick fun. Both are recommended. Does anyone have recommendation for a popular-science…
on “Three Mathematicians We Lost in 2020” ↗…heavy-hitters of mid-century physics. The format was surprisingly narrative, makes me wish I wrote as many personal longer-form letters with family and friends. Also Siobhan Roberts' biography of Conway, Genius at Play[1], told another great story. Low on math content but Conway's personality and the narrators attempts to corral it were quick fun. Both are recommended. Does anyone have recommendation for a popular-science…
on “Three Mathematicians We Lost in 2020” ↗…by James Gleick, 3. "The Man Who Loved Only Numbers" by Paul Hoffman 4. "A Mathematician's Apology" by G.H. Hardy 5. "The Indian Clerk" (fiction) by David Leavitt (about GH Hardy & Ramanujan) 6. "Genius at Play" by Siobhan Roberts (about John Conway). Normally I stay away from pop-math books with the words "The mind of..." or "Genius" in the title but this is a delightful book. Some "actual" math books: 1.…
on “Ask HN: Books that made you fascinated to learn more mathematics?” ↗Not really a math book but I really enjoyed "Genius At Play", a biography of John H. Conway. Also anything from Raymond Smullyan (logic musings/riddles).
on “Ask HN: Which math book(s) did you learn the most from?” ↗I was suffering from a burnout for much of the year and read mostly to relax. Reread a bunch of Discworld and read most of the Expanse series for the first time. Some Murakami. The Conway biography ("Genius At Play"), also a reread because it's fun. But "The Dream Machine: JCR Licklider and the Revolution That Made Computing Personal", often recommended om HN, was amazing. It has so much of the history of how personal…
on “Ask HN: What did you read in 2025?” ↗The author of the article wrote a recent book on John Conway as well http://www.amazon.com/Genius-At-Play-Curious-Horton/dp/16204...
on “John Conway – The world’s most charismatic mathematician” ↗…The problem is that most things you think are fascinating, the authors/journalists won't think is interesting, so you may need to sell them on it. [0] Siobhan Roberts [1] Roberts, Siobhan (2015). "Genius at play: The curious mind of John Horton Conway." Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-1620405932.
on “The Quest to Find Rectangles in a Square” ↗