I read the bulk of this book, two hundred pages, in one
sitting.
It was so engrossing partly because of how well written this
book is, the co-author, Louisa Thomas is a well known writer; and partly
because the book addresses two worlds that are dear to my heart: mathematics
and sports. I didn’t engage either one of the worlds in the depth that the
author does, I am an engineer and a youth coach, but the juxtapositions of the
two worlds was held deep attraction for me.
For most of the general audience the two worlds are
seemingly diametrically opposed, but the authors manage to portray the deep
love that the two world engenders in John Urschel. Indeed, the authors did a
magnificent job coupling the two seemingly disparate threads together into a
cogent whole. At first, I feared that I was going to dislike the structure of
the book: they chose to alternated math and football chapters, but the book was
so well written that my perceived distraction evaporated as I dove into the
book.
John Urschel’s story is widely reported in the popular
press. He straddled the football and math worlds as an undergraduate, a
graduate student, and a post grad while playing at Penn State and in the NFL. He
was good enough to be drafted by the Baltimore Ravens and having a productive three
years while also studying for his PhD in mathematics at MIT. This book roughly
described his journey. The book tells a great story in an unselfconscious and
natural way. John Urschel came through the account as a genuine and honest
person, even as he addressed a few issues that could have been controversial:
the fall out from the Sandusky affair at Penn State and the effect of repeated
concussions on his potential as a mathematician, he honestly told his story
focused on his own perceptions and thoughts, while assiduously avoided
inflaming any nerves. He told the story through his eyes without extrapolating the
facts to come to any indefensible conclusions, which is all we can ask for.
The other part of the book that could have been difficult is
the mathematics. I have had the background and training to get through most of
the mathematics, most of the concepts were on an advanced undergraduate to
graduate level, John Urschel’s teaching ability was evident and shone through
in his explanations of some of the more advanced mathematics topics. I moved
away from any thoughts of majoring in mathematics after my initial experience
with real analysis, so I was cognizant but not an expert in many of the areas;
but I was able to understand his explanations of his work in Graph Theory, algorithm
development, uncertainty, and spectral bisection. His explanations assume some
background in math, but he was able communicate to the readers in an exceptionally
clear fashion just in terms of concepts and intuition and without employing any
mathematical language. In fact, intuition was his guiding light as he powered
through his way through his mathematical explorations, and he was able to
explain the role that intuition played in his mathematical thoughts.
The football portions of the story were told somewhat matter-of-factly.
I would imagine that this was intentional, as the authors may have assumed that
the general public who would read this book are thoroughly engaged in the
intensity and passions of football in America. Two parts of the football story
engaged me: his freshman year workouts with his strength and condition coach at
Penn State and the Raven’s win over the Pittsburgh Steelers and loss to the New
England Patriots in the NFL playoffs. Those stories captured and conveyed the passion
that John Urschel had of the game of football as well as the mindset he employed
to become successful in football.
In possibly one of the great acts in self-awareness and
honesty comes in the last chapter when he describes why he walked away from football
and is devoting his considerable intellect to mathematics. Unlike most great
athletes, he recognized his shortcomings and he was able to explain his logic
and reasoning for walking away with aplomb and honesty.
I was a nice easy read but the book talks about the
mathematics that he is doing as well as taking the reader though his life so far.
I think that our culture’s preoccupation with specialization drives our
internal narrative. We are expected to focus and be great at one thing, that
one thing should give us all a good life while contributing to the orderly
conduct of our life in society, but we all know that human beings are complex,
and our intellect can be multi-faceted. What John Urschel’s story illustrates is
that by exceeding societal expectations in terms of what his role is in life, he
is staking his claim as a polymath.
This was, a very enjoyable and entertaining read.
