The Art of the Shortcut

Marcus du Sautoy has a very real talent for popularizing maths. His 10 episode 2010 BBC series A Brief History of Mathematics has become one of our favorite podcasts on any topic. It’s a fantastic introduction to the breadth of mathematical developments that led to advancements in science.

Now, he has a new book out, Thinking Better: The Art of the Shortcut, which is already available in the U.K. and will be available in the U.S. from 19 October 2021, in which he explores maths as a human invention aimed at avoiding “huge slogs of hard work”!

The following 20 minute Numberphile video features him discussing the role of shortcuts in solving challenging problems more easily, but also the risks that may lie in cutting out too much information:

Some of the most tantalizing developments in maths today is oriented toward determining if shortcuts exist. It’s the stuff the Clay Mathematics Institute’s Millennium Prize Problems are made of!