However, the book is more than a guide to mathematical reasoning - you can look at it as a guide to problem solving orriented thinking. I work as a business consultant and I could resist constantly thinking about business decision-making in the context of the book. I strongly recommend it to anybody with interest in management decision-making.


At the very root of mathematical discovery   August 7, 1998
 48 out of 50 found this review helpful

One of the most beautiful books on scientific discovery. Read this book and then keep it at bedside for sheer amusement. Analogies are frequently the key to a discovery, but it is rare that this essential step receives credit. Here there is a collection of them: some of the most beautiful. Perhaps the most famous is Bernoulli's solution of the brachistochrone problem, based on an analogy with the path of light in the atmosphere. But there are many others, with comments and analysis by Polya, who spent a life thinking at these things. It's a pity he didn't include Riemann's "proof" of the theorem of conformal representation, based on an analogy with the physics of electrical currents on a surface. The reader can find it beautifully described in Richard Courant's "Dirichlet Principle".