Book review: Humble Pi by Matt Parker

I quite liked to book, it has a lot of interesting facts that I didn’t know about, but it also had a lot of facts I already did know about especially computing related. I’m not feeling particularly smug about that because those that I did know I learned mostly from YouTube videos and some of those were by Matt Parker anyway.

As Matt argues in the later parts of the book, humans are really good finding ways around the safeguards that were put in place precisely to protect from the kinds of mistakes we are about to do by avoiding them. I myself have done this numerous of times, so thank the universe I’m not working on the kind of software systems that concern people lives, because I’m certain there would be bodies left behind by my short-sightedness. It is interesting though, that I do put a lot of thought into setting systems in place to protect against human errors usually, it’s just that I promptly go around those systems when it becomes a slight inconvenience.

It’s intriguing to think about much more costly the mathematical and engineering mistakes will become in the future, as we continue to further and further depend on modern technological solutions for the modern technological world. Matt points out multiple instances when mistakes cost lives due to, among others, faulty medical equipment, poorly designed buildings or load baring miscalculations, and we seem to be in a rush to help expand that list. Thinking of everything Boeing related or so many car manufacturers issues recalls like Tesla, GM, Toyota, Nissan and more.