Customer Reviews

Geek Logik: 50 Foolproof Equations for Everyday Life

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the sort of book you cannot wait to share with friends. Alas, as I've learned several times over, it's also the sort of book friends are reluctant to return after you loan it to them. Besides being funny and clever and near impossible to put down, it's actually useful, in the same way that a Rubik's Cube is (used to be) useful: to transport you into the realm of problems that wink, "I have a solution! Find me!" I cannot recommend this book too highly.

This book is completely useless but somewhat entertaining. The prose accompanying each equation is witty. This book would be a reasonable cheesy gift for the person who has everything. The first chapter has an overview of basic algebra, including the all-important order of operations, so it might even be a useful gift for someone whose math education ended in junior high.

On the negative side, the "Dating and Relationships" section is completely written for a male perspective and generally invokes some negative stereotypes of women. The book could definitely use more egalitarian language to give it a broader appeal.

The calculator included with the book (packaged in the front cover) does not have an exponent function, even though most of the equations use an exponent. Did the publisher's marketing department even glance at the text before picking the gimmicky cover?

All the self-help books are beginning to sound the same. NOT SO with Geek Logik. From a psychology perspective, I think following Garth Sundem's advice may be the best thing since Freud (sorry Garth). His approach is not only intuitively sound but mathematically sound (so he claims). It's a difficult book to put down except when you're laughing so hard you can no longer see the words. Merry Christmas to my whole Christmas list!
Gail Noller

Hilarious, creative, and disturbingly useful. A great read for pure entertainment value, though you will secretly consider actually using these equations to simplify difficult daily decisions.

"Geek Logik" is really a book for all ages. Why? Because it speaks to all the important questions we are all struggling to answer in life. I was on the floor laughing throughout the whole book. My personal favorite: "Do I have a snowball's chance in hell with her?" The equations and logics are masterfully concocted.

This will be a great Christmas present. I already bought several copies for my friends and family - they are going to love it!!!

One of the funniest books I have read in a long, long time. I highly recommend it.

This book has some entertaining cheeky humor that most will appreciate, but it's best for those who don't have math backgrounds and who can enjoy it for the components of the analyses (writing style included). Even the author (or maybe even the editor) can see is that none of these equations are meant to be taken any more seriously than a Cosmo quiz, and that's what really makes this book bearable. For example, in a question on whether to follow a self-help book's advice, "Geek Logik" gets 1/16th of the effect of any other self-help book if the equation is followed. There are other unintended effects that in most modeling would be seriously questioned, but that's not the intent of this book.

The equations mostly come out as "if good factors > bad factors, then do it", with logical "ands" (i.e., both things need to happen) represented by multiplication and logical "ors" (i.e., at least one thing needs to happen) represented by additions. There are the occassional quadratics, cubics, and square roots to give a veneer of mathematic complexity, but most of these can be reduced to simpler factors and reasons. It can be fun to think about what the author intended, and the extra work put in to make it more substantial than a "sum up the score points" can be appreciated (even if there's no basis for correctness).

The book is inexpensive, so buy it as a silly coffee table book that can be brushed through in an hour; don't buy it for someone only because they have a math, engineering, or physics background. If they don't like this style of humor, then it will be a dud. Anyone buying it for the cover's marketing (i.e., the "foolproof equations") will likewise be sorely disappointed.

This book is absolutely hillarious! A work of true genious. For all of us who need to quantify the Big Decisions in life, and have a bit of O.C.D. thrown in the mix. I can't wait for the sequal!

As a high school (and later college) student, I always struggled with the utility of algebra, asking the ages old question, "When am I going to use this stuff in life?" Sundem's _Geek Logik_ finally answers that question with 50 equations that provide a mathematical answer to such burning real-life questions as "Should I get a tatoo?" or "Am I over qualified for my job?" The answers may surprise you. Certainly its not the sort of book one takes too seriously, but the process of crunching through the formulae is both entertaining and (to me) fascinating to see how the equations were put together.

Pick up Geek Logik and you won't put it down. This is a gem!

I first heard Garth Sundem talking about his latest book "Brain Candy" in Dr Kiki's Science Hour podcast, thought it was interesting, and a few weeks later browsed Amazon looking for it. Somehow I ended up with Geek Logik instead. I blame myself for not looking inside the book (or even judging by the cover) and expected something on a more serious side.

If you are hoping to find some practical, actually usable equations/graphs based on some scientific studies of some sort, this is not the book for you. The ones presented in the book are essentially whacky, humorous, "overly complex" equations with 6-8 or more variables, with the majority of the variables are actually just subjective rating values on a scale of 1-10. The author even lightly suggested, "you can adjust the equations by adding more variables to suit your needs."

So I spent around 15 minutes skimming over some of equations (especially those dealing with less clichéd topics, yay I can still wear speedos) and read some of descriptions and quickly put it to rest.

On the other hand, this book makes a great gift for fellow geeks, I suppose.