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knb comments on Open Thread, August 2010 - Less Wrong
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Does anyone have any book recommendations for a gifted young teen? My nephew is 13, and he recently blew the lid off of a school-administered IQ test.
For his birthday, I want to give him some books that will inspire him to achieve great things and live a happy life full of hard work. At the very least, I want to give him some good math and science books. He has already has taken algebra, geometry and introductory calculus, so he knows some math already.
Books are not enough. Smart kids are lonely. Get him into a good school (or other community) where he won't be the smartest one. That happened to me at 11 when I was accepted into Russia's best math school and for the first time in my life I met other people worth talking to, people who actually thought before saying words. Suddenly, to regain my usual position of the smart kid, I had to actually work hard. It was very very important. I still go to school reunions every year, even though I finished it 12 years ago.
Alternatively, not having any equally smart kids to talk to will force him to read books and/or go online for interesting ideas and conversation. I don't think I had any really interesting real-life conversations until college, when I did an internship at Microsoft Research, and I'd like to think that I turned out fine.
My favorite book, BTW, is A Fire Upon the Deep. But one of the reasons I like it so much is that I was heavily into Usenet when I first read it, and I'm not sure that aspect of the book will resonate as much today. (I was determined to become a one-man Sandor Arbitration Intelligence. :)
Seconded. Whether he's exposed to a group of people who think ideas can be cool could be the biggest influence on him for the rest of his life.
Thirded. My experience is that most schools can be very damaging for smart kids.
Forum favorite Good and Real looks reasonably accessible to me, and covers a lot of ground. Also seconding Gödel, Escher Bach.
The Mathematical Experience has essays about doing mathematics, written by actual mathematicians. It seems like very good reading for someone who might be considering studying math.
The Road to Reality has Roger Penrose trying to explain all of modern physics and the required mathematics without pulling any punches and starting from grade school math in a single book. Will probably cause a brain meltdown at some point on anyone who doesn't already know the stuff, but just having a popular science style book that nevertheless goes on to explain the general theory of relativity without handwaving is pretty impressive. Doesn't include any of Penrose's less fortunate forays into cognitive science and AI.
Darwin's Dangerous Idea by Daniel Dennett explains how evolution isn't just something that happens in biology, but how it turns up in all sorts of systems.
Armchair Universe and old book about "computer recreations", probably most famous is the introduction of the Core War game. The other topics are similar, setting up an environment with a simple program that has elaborate emergent behavior coming out of it. Assumes the reader might actually program the recreations themselves, and provides appropriate detail.
Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman is pretty much entertainment, but still very good. Feynman is still the requisite trickster-god patron saint of math and science.
Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software explains how computers are put together, starting from really concrete first principles (flashing Morse code with flashlights, mechanical relay circuits) and getting up to microprocessors, RAM and executable program code.
Good and Real is superb, but really too dry for a 13-year-old. I'd wait on that one.
Surely You're Joking is also fantastic, but get it read and approved by your nephew's parents first; there's a few sexual stories with a hint of a PUA worldview.
I loved "The Mathematical Experience" when I was 13-ish, and I re-read it recently; still good! I strongly second this recommendation.
Thanks, I just ordered 'Darwin's Dangerous Idea' and 'Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software'. I've already got the others.
Here a tidbit from 'The Mathematical Experience'
I've ordered a copy, but on a second look, I'm not sure that the argument is sound, or even interesting.
Biological evolution runs on the local non-survival of the least fit (and sometimes the unlucky), not on an overview-based evaluation of the fittest.
Peer-review is the predator. But if the prey population is higher than can be sheltered by selection of promising ideas from nonsense, nonsense will prevail. That is, those people producing valuable results won't be favored over those that come up with marginal or wrong results.
Yes, that's exactly the kind of stuff I recommended The Mathematical Experience for. It takes a bird's eye view instead of going for the usual textbook minutiae, but still feels like it's talking about the actual practice of mathematics instead of something simplified to death for the benefit of popular audiences.
Wow, great list. Thanks!
Oh, oops— I intended my review of the above selections to show up on your replies, not Risto's.
Godel Escher Bach!
knb, does your nephew know about lesswrong, rationality and the Singularity? I guess I would have enjoyed reading such a website when I was a teenager.
When it comes to a physical book, Engines of Creation by Drexler can be a good way to introduce him to nanotechnology and what science can make happen. (I know that nanotech is far less important that FAI, but I think it is more "visual" : you can imagine those nanobots manufacturing stuff or curing diseases, while you cannot imagine a hard takeoff).
Teenagers need dream.
My sister and brother-in-law are both semi-religious theists, so I'm a bit reluctant to introduce him to anything as hardcore-atheist as Less Wrong, at least right now. Going through that huge theist-to-atheist identity transition can be really traumatic. I think it would be better if he was a bit older before he had confront those ideas.
I was 16 before I really allowed myself to accept that I didn't believe in God, and that was still a major crisis for me. If he starts getting into hardcore rationality material this early, I'm afraid it could force a choice between rationality and wishful thinking that he may not be ready to make.
If he is gifted and interested in science, introducing him to lesswrong, rationality and the Singularity could have a substantial positive impact on his academic development. What would be the worst that could happen?
My concern is not just that it would be traumatic, but that it will be so traumatic that he'll rationalize himself into a "belief in belief" situation. I had my crisis of faith when I was close to his age (14) and I wasn't ready to accept something that would alienate me from my family yet, so I simply told myself that I believed, and tried not to think about the issue. (I suspect this is why most people don't come out as atheists until after they've established separate identities from their parents and families.
A lot of people never escape from these traps. I think waiting somewhat--until he's somewhat older and more mature--will make him more likely to come to the right conclusions in the end.
I had rather the opposite experience - don't recall ever really believing (though I went to Catholic elementary school and semi-regularly attended a church), and was shocked in 8th grade to find that people were really serious about that stuff. Ended up spending a lot of time pointlessly arguing.
How is the above wrong enough to be at -2? I nearly universally reject any assertions that people have a duty to interfere with others but even so I don't have a problem with the above.
The Heinlein Juveniles. 'have space suit will travel' and others have the whole self-reliance, work hard and achieve things strongly ingrained. I cannot judge how well the integrate with your current culture, but in the 50s they sold well, and still do. But those are not specific for über-bright kids, more for the normal bright types. If he hasn't done so yet, just introducing him to the next big library might help a lot.
Another all-purpose book: Bill Brysons: short history of almost everything. It is not aim at kids, but very accessible, well written and deal with lots of the history of sciences, including the ignoring of great achievements, misleading pathways and such.
A great overview.
My dad's been trying to get me to read the Feynman Lectures for ages - the man's a good writer if your nephew would be interested by physics.
You might also consider Raymond Smullyan's books of logic puzzles - I particularly recommend The Lady or the Tiger? as excellent.