Joy of Abstraction
by Eugenia Cheng · first published 2022
67% recommend33% neutral
Why HN recommends it
An accessible introduction to category theory and abstraction, written so non-mathematicians can follow. It serves as a companion after How to Bake Pi and as a gentler path than technical texts.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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Anyone interested in category theory might be interested in the brand new book The Joy of Abstraction: An Exploration of Math, Category Theory, and Life by Eugenia Cheng. https://www.amazon.com/Joy-Abstraction-Exploration-Category-... Then there's of course the classic introduction Conceptual Mathematics…
on “Applied category theory in chemistry, computing, and social networks [pdf]” ↗Try Eugenia Chang’s new book, The Joy of Abstraction. Riehl’s book is very technical.
on “Why I am learning category theory” ↗I recommend "how to bake pi" by Eugenia Cheng for a high level introduction, followed by her in-depth (but still approachable) book "The Joy of Abstraction"
on “Why I am learning category theory” ↗there are a few books that make it accessible to non mathematicians. Both by Eugenia Cheng, "How to Bake Pi" and "The Joy of Abstraction"
on “Sheaf Theory Through Examples” ↗My very first was Naive Set Theory by Paul Halmos. Way over my head in 7th(?) grade but my first intro to math beyond pre-algebra stuff. Lately I've enjoyed, but did not finish, the Joy of Abstraction by Eugenia Cheng, on category theory. And there was a differential geometry book whose name I have forgotten but whose exercises I really enjoyed, because I could do them in my head while riding the…
on “The joy of reading books you don't understand” ↗1. Why Machines Learn - Anil Ananthaswamy Fantastic exposition of machine learning. The author does an amazing job of bringing a technical subject down to an easily readable level. 2. The Joy of Abstraction - Eugenia Cheng Similar to the above review. I never thought Category Theory could be made so easily readable! 3. A Little History of Philosophy - Nigel Warburton Small, compact book. A quick interesting…
on “Ask HN: End of Year Book Recommendations” ↗F. William Lawvere - Conceptual Mathematics: A First Introduction to Categories Eugenia Cheng - The Joy of Abstraction: An Exploration of Math, Category Theory, and Life She builds up to the category theory chapters. Book club: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhgq-BqyZ7i7tEEQVG5rlOG8y...
on “Applied Category Theory Course (2018)” ↗…pretty useful if you get into higher mathematics: Math Vault | The Definitive Glossary of Higher Mathematical Jargon - https://mathvault.ca/math-glossary/ Some books: There is Eugenia Cheng's book: The Joy of Abstraction See this list its pretty good: https://abakcus.com/30-best-math-books-to-learn-advanced-mat... P.S. I created some Youtube lecture aggregation channels: https://arisbe.carrd.co/#section03
on “Ask HN: Books or courses to understand college level mathematics?” ↗Very nice. Also recommended reading is Eugenie Cheng, The Joy of Abstraction[1] which emphasizes diagram chasing to visualize abstract relationships. [1] https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108769389
on “Category theory using string diagrams (2014)” ↗…Philosophy" by David Corfield (just took this one to OBX North Carolina to enjoy on my beach vacation last week! Got some salt water in those pages. Also speaks to Category Theory.) For Category Theory: "The Joy of Abstraction" (2023) by Euginia Cheng "Basic Category Theory for Computer Scientists" by Benjamin C. Pierce "Conceptual Mathematics: A first introduction to categories" by Lawvere and Schanuel "Categories for the…
on “Why is it worth spending time on type theory? (2013)” ↗This looks like a very good book on Category Theory with a lot of illustrations. Anyone can compare between this book and The Joy of Abstraction by Eugenia Cheng for learning Category Theory beginner? https://golem.ph.utexas.edu/category/2023/02/the_joy_of_abst...
on “Category Theory Illustrated” ↗Yes, that book in particular. I have Emily Riehl's Category Theory in Context which was not immediately accessible to me at all. Joy of Abstraction aims to be an on-ramp to that.
on “Lisp as the Maxwell’s Equations of Software (2012)” ↗I am currently reading The Joy of Abstraction. This is a fine book. But what this book needed is a good editor. Most space of most chapters of the book is written like a preface. This book also suffers from what many technical books suffers from-…
on “Ask HN: Books you read in 2022 and recommend for 2023” ↗…Haskell/Ocaml/Common Lisp/Scheme phase in the mid 2000's, so it was easy to pick up. The only new part of it is the actor-based concurrency model. My foray into Category Theory so far has been reading "The Joy of Abstraction", which is a layman's book to CT. So far what's she's written makes perfect sense and would be mostly obvious to anyone who hangs out on HN. Moving up and down various levels of abstraction, the idea…
on “Ask HN: What would you spend your time working on if you didn't need money?” ↗I am referring to her other book, The Joy of Abstraction.
on “Is math real?” ↗