《数学之美》Reading Notes

http://book.douban.com/subject/10750155/

I saw this book in bookstore first, instead of Amazon\China-Pub that is the usual way I got to know new books. 

I was amazed by this book and became happier and happier while I was reading this book. It belongs to the "interest-based" category of Chinese books which are very rare. 

All maths\theory based in the book are not too profound; most can be categorized into basic undergrad courses - like linear algebra, Probability, Information theory, number theory and high school maths etc. But the author does a great job that combining these boring maths with real world applications, fulfilled with huge fun of MATHS. Have you doubted that linear algebra you've learnt in class is useless? Try chapters on Google; Wanna a much smarter way to implement IsInSet()? Try bloom filter - really concise and beautiful solution - then I got to know the power and beauty of MATHS.

There are numerous sparkling spots in the book what you will enjoy them all - Markov Chain & Bayesian network, Viterbi algorithm & dynamic programming, app of probability, etc. All of these are in NLP realm, so you must be enthusiastic to explore MATHS in your focus area - if your field is not NLP. Even if you work in industry, you must be excited to see how MATHS could do magics to your daily work :)