Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read a copy of this book!

I liked this book, but was not able to give it as much attention as it deserved. For a book about shortcuts, it needed a lot of mental effort from the reader (sorry, I never sat and pondered the do-it-yourself problems). Though I finished this book about a month ago, a number of anecdotes still stick with me, especially the opening one about Gauss. I did come into the book expecting more of a self-help book and instead this is more of a mathematical survey. I do think the best readers for this book are people already invested in math and thinking mathematically--though the content is fairly accessible, it's still more of a "sit down and think" than the "flip through bullet points about shortcut tips and tricks" book I had thought I'd encounter.

Thinking Better is a history of how shortcuts have opened our eyes to better, and faster, methodologies. It advocates for outside-the-box thinking. Unfortunately, the book doesn’t contain ways to create these shortcuts for your own problems in either life or math.

I’m disappointed and feel misled by the publisher’s blurb. However, at least you will know what you are getting going in. 2 stars.

Thanks to Basic Books, Perseus Books and NetGalley for a copy in exchange for my honest review.

This is not the ordinary dull dry and boring math book full of facts and numbers that no one understand I have math dyslexia and yet I was able to read and understand this book and highly recommend it for everyone not just those that are looking for math help

This book encompasses the work smarter, not harder premises. I thought it was interesting and informative and I learned some new hacks as well!