Max Mednik
  • Home
  • About
  • Interests
    • Angel investing
    • Magic
    • Scuba Diving
  • Blog
  • Contact

Readings and musings

Notes on Fooling Houdini by Alex Stone

11/29/2013

0 Comments

 
Picture
I just finished reading Fooling Houdini: Magicians, Mentalists, Math Geeks, and the Hidden Powers of the Mind by Alex Stone, and it was my most pleasurable read all year (the most thought-provoking and brain-altering was probably Antifragile).

The book was so pleasurable for me to read because I identified so closely with the author's journey. I've loved magic since I was about 7 years old, and for my whole life, I enjoyed "collecting" tricks and dabbling, barely squeaking by in my abilities. When I read about how the author failed in his first magic competition and then took to developing his skills seriously, that immediately rang true for me, as I find myself right now reinvigorated in my own study of magic, ever since cramming for and passing my audition to join the Magic Castle's Academy of Magical Arts as a Magician Member.

I don't care about what various reviews say about the book or how mad some magicians might be about some exposure of their methods in Alex's book. Alex does a major service to the art and science of magic by showing how special and powerful it can be when it's done right and what interesting intellectual and historical background there is to our amazing craft. There is no point to revealing secrets just for entertainment's sake, and that is certainly not what Alex does. He finally demystifies the hard work behind learning magic and gives magicians like me who want to improve their skills a whole lot of resources and ideas to check out.

I particularly enjoyed the sections on mentalism, psychology, and the deep relationship between computer science, math, and magic. A lot reminded me of the other awesome neuroscience and magic book I read a couple years ago: Sleights of Mind. In this book, though, I gained a profound appreciation for how many amazing magicians are computer scientists and physicists, and how many amazing scientists are hobbyist magicians! The sections on probability theory and shuffling math were mind-blowing too, and I can't wait to test out some of the things I learned.

Below are my copious notes on the book.

0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    June 2021
    May 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    April 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    March 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010

    Categories

    All
    Angel Investing
    Cacti
    Cars
    China
    Community Service
    Culture
    Design
    Djing
    Dogs
    Education
    Entertainment
    Entrepreneurship
    Family
    Finance
    Food
    Google
    Happiness
    Incentives
    Investment Banking
    Judaism
    Law
    Lighting
    Magic
    Marketing
    Medicine
    Networking
    Nolabound
    Philosophy
    Professionalism
    Psychology
    Reading
    Real Estate
    Religion
    Romance
    Sales
    Science
    Shangri-La
    Social Entrepreneurship
    Social Media
    Sports
    Teams
    Technology
    Travel
    Turtles
    Ucla
    Venture Capital
    Web Services
    Weddings
    Zen

    Subscribe

    RSS Feed

Picture
Picture
  • Home
  • About
  • Interests
    • Angel investing
    • Magic
    • Scuba Diving
  • Blog
  • Contact