To Mock a Mockingbird

Amazon

HTH I think I can blame this one on Jeff Atwood’s blog, Coding Horror.

Synopsis Logic puzzles that eventually introduce combinatory logic via tales.

Thoughts As a software developer, I don’t traffic in logic, and that should’ve been a clue: If I wanted to feel stupid, I wouldn’t have picked up this book, I would’ve just looked in the mirror after waking in the morning with my eyes still half-closed and my hair wicked in its disarray.

I’d probably like this book better if I had more than two days to skim through the text and, better, a pen and paper handy to help me solve the problems and keep track of who said what, when, and why. This is not the kind of reading you want to do on the bus or in bed just before you lay your head to sleep and end up dreaming of truth-telling knaves and lying knights.

The combinatory logic stuff completely befuddled me, indicating either that I’m dumber than a pile of rocks, or reading while fucking results in some sort of conflict between the two brains, or I need caffeine, more time, and paper. If all are equally probable and possible, can we determine which is the truth?

I’ll probably check out the library copy again in a few months, or maybe even buy a copy and add it to my daily abnegation rituals.