The art of insight in science and engineering
by Sanjoy Mahajan · first published 2014
79% recommend21% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Short, free book teaching estimation and problem solving by building intuition first, using dimensional analysis and back-of-envelope reasoning; suits engineers and science students wanting pragmatic approaches.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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Follow that up with his slightly more advanced The Art of Insight in Science and Engineering [0]. I feel like these two books plus Art Benjamin's Secrets of Mental Math [1] would put your Fermi calculation abilities on another level. [0] https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/art-insight-science-and-engin...
on “Street-Fighting Mathematics” ↗If you want to practice skills like these, try: Street-Fighting Mathematics [1] and The Art of Insight in Science and Engineering by Sanjoy Mahajan (MIT) [2]. Free downloads via: [1] https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/street-fighting-mathematics [2] https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/art-insight-science-and-engin...
on “The Dying Art of Mental Math Tricks” ↗"The Art of Insight in Science and Engineering: Mastering Complexity" by Sanjoy Mahajan. It beautifully treats estimation and problem solving techniques, illustrated by examples from science and engineering. Instead of aiming for a complete, thorough…
on “Ask HN: Which books do you consider real gems in your field of work/study?” ↗Same for me. The book and its tools are extremely empowering. In general, anything from Sanjoy Mahajan (the author) is extremely insightful: -Street Fighting Mathematics -The Art of Insight in Science and Engineering -Lecture notes on signals & systems (a bit harder to find) -Lecture notes on thermodynamics (real-world insights rather than endless manipulations of weird partial derivatives) Afaik he is currently…
on “Ask HN: What things have richly rewarded the time invested in mastering them?” ↗Sanjoy Mahajan's The Art of Insight in Science and Engineering (available online, https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/art-insight-science-and-engin...). Takes a very pragmatic look to doing mathematics, while not pulling many punches on how advanced the mathematics gets.…
on “Ask HN: Recommend a maths book for a teenager?” ↗Street Fighting Mathematics, and The Art of Insight in Science and Engineering, both by Sanjoy Mahajan. You can find the PDFs online.
on “Problem Solving Techniques” ↗"The Art of Insight in Science and Engineering" https://books.google.bg/books/about/The_Art_of_Insight_in_Sc...
on “Ask HN: Which books have made you a better thinker and problem solver?” ↗…quite quickly). It changed how I view problem solving and engineering estimation forever. Grab "entire book" (about 130 pages) at http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-comput... "The Art of Insight in Science and Engineering" looks like a refined and expanded version of the OCW course. Like 6.055J, I'm sure it can be read casually and in small pieces. Do yourself the favor of checking out 6.055J or "The Art of Insight in…
on “The Art of Insight in Science and Engineering” ↗For those who haven't picked up Art of Insight in Science and Engineering, table of contents here: https://mitpress.mit.edu/sites/default/files/titles/free_dow... "This book shows you how to build insight and understanding first, so that you do not drown in complexity. Therefore,…
on “Street-Fighting Mathematics” ↗I have missed both the linked book (2010) and "The Art of Insight in Science and Engineering" (2014). Both sound like the exact kind of books I'd love and devour. I guess one month+ of fun reading/doing is ahead of me :)
on “Street-Fighting Mathematics” ↗To evaluate stuff like this, you just need basic physics knowledge (enough to do dimensional analysis with) and estimation skills. One fun read along these lines is "The Art of Insight in Science and Engineering". For stuff like the bad social science you mentioned, often you can catch it if you know basic statistics along with the common tricks people use to p-hack. See, for example, "The garden of forking…
on “How much power can we expect from rainfall?” ↗MIT OCW has a free textbook "The Art of Insight in Science and Engineering: Mastering Complexity", which I usually point folks to on the subject of estimating physical systems. I think this is a real gem. Another work of the author is referenced at the bottom of the article.…
on “Hacking physics from the back of a napkin (2020)” ↗Its CC "The Art of Insight in Science and Engineering: Mastering Complexity by Sanjoy Mahajan (author) and MIT Press (publisher) is licensed under the Creative Commons At- tribution–Noncommercial–ShareAlike 4.0 International License" I'm sure including…
on “Street-Fighting Mathematics” ↗…Example 1 in Guesstimation by Lawrence Weinstein and John Adams, would work for this problem. The problem is about estimating the height of all lottery tickets in a lottery. Another book called The art of Insight in Science and Engineering by Sanjoy Mahajan has this problem (1.3) but its with a suitcase filled with $100 bills.
on “The Fed says this is a cube of $1M. They're off by half a million” ↗…seemingly disparate pieces of information into a simple picture. Unlike computers, humans depend on insight. Based on the author’s fifteen years of teaching at MIT, Cambridge University, and Olin College, The Art of Insight in Science and Engineering shows us how to build insight and find understanding, giving readers tools to help them solve any problem in science and engineering. (Description courtesy of MIT Press.)
on “The Art of Insight in Science and Engineering – Mastering Complexity(2014) [pdf]” ↗