The Joy of Abstraction An Exploration of Math, Category Theory, and Life

'This book is an educational tour de force that presents mathematical thinking as a right-brained activity. Most 'left brain/right brain' education-talk is at best a crude metaphor; but by putting the main focus on the process of (mathematical) abstraction, Eugenia Cheng supplies the reader (whatever their 'brain-type') with the mental tools to make that distinction precise and potentially useful. The book takes the reader along in small steps; but make no mistake, this is a major intellectual journey. Starting not with numbers, but everyday experiences, it develops what is regarded as a very advanced branch of abstract mathematics (category theory, though Cheng really uses this as a proxy for mathematical thinking generally). This is not watered-down math; it's the real thing. And it challenges the reader to think-deeply at times. We 'left-brainers' can learn plenty from it too.' Keith Devlin, Stanford University (Emeritus), author of The Joy of Sets