Quel est l'intérêt de se lancer dans une carrière scientifique, si l'IA générale arrive ?
Sur son blog, @davidbessis.bsky.social répond à cette difficile question posée par un doctorant. Vous ne lirez probablement rien de plus intéressant cette semaine.
davidbessis.substack.com/p/letter-to-...
Thanks to @cedricchin.bsky.social for arranging a group call with @davidbessis.bsky.social definitely going to be reading his book about how maths is really done, see davidbessis.substack.com/p/thinking-f... for a taste
29.01.2026 14:41 — 👍 4 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
Il est arrivé…
« Le Rectangle de Lascaux »rencontre le triangle des Éditions Odile Jacob !
Sortie en librairie mercredi 28 janvier.
@editionsodilejacob.bsky.social @cnrs.fr @inserm.fr @college-de-france.fr @cedricvillani.bsky.social @davidbessis.bsky.social
This reminds me of John Nash's letter where he declined an offer for a prestigious chair at the University of Chicago because he was expecting to become Emperor of Antarctica.
19.01.2026 10:48 — 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0I recently read "Mathematica" by David Bessis, and I think it's a fantastic book! Before I recommend it to everyone, I would love to hear from people who do mathematics, or at least prove a theorem now and then. Do you agree with Bessis' description of what mathematics is and what mathematicians do?
29.12.2025 02:45 — 👍 5 🔁 2 💬 1 📌 0Thanks. I could indeed have noted that, but I think it is more effective to debunk what this person is claiming, rather that debunking him as a person. Especially with a pop sci account that blends 10% hardcore nonsense with 90% legit science news (this vicious strategy has served him well so far.)
02.01.2026 09:08 — 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Cover of Bessis' Mathematica
In case you are still trying to find a present for yourself or a loved one who would like to hear more about what we mathematicians do and how so.... I can only recommend Bessis' book Mathematica. What a wonderful read. I could highlight every other sentence.
#math #maths #mathsky
Taken at face value, "twins reared apart" studies seem to prove the IQ is almost entirely genetic. But when you look at the actual science, you realize that it is entirely inconclusive — the approach just doen't work!
davidbessis.substack.com/p/twins-rear...
The mathematician David Bessis believes that mathematical skill is not innate, but learned. “Genius is not an essence. It’s a state. It’s a state that you build by doing a certain job.”
27.11.2025 16:46 — 👍 43 🔁 18 💬 0 📌 3His book "Mathematica" is a real eye-opener. David Bessis describes accurately and vividly the way we perceive and manipulate mathematical objects. Colleagues who read it also felt he put into words what they had not been able to formulate about the mathematical process. Highly recommended.
27.11.2025 20:05 — 👍 1 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
BTW, do subscribe to my Substack, if you haven't yet done so! The latest post is about why mathematics survives the many errors in the literature—if it really was founded on pure logic, math would crumble to dust.
davidbessis.substack.com/p/the-curiou...
Just received this legitimate reader request: could I publish a French Substack, alongside the original English? (The same could be asked about my posts here.) I could, but it wouldn't be worth the effort. I'm writing for a global audience whose only lingua franca is English.
17.11.2025 10:42 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0😅
17.11.2025 09:28 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0Ça ne devait pas être mon époque, il n'y avait pas vraiment de démonstration, j'essayais d'expliquer ce que c'était qu'un énoncé mathématique, ce qu'était une démonstration, comment tout ça marchait, et d'expliquer quelques notions *avec les mains*.
17.11.2025 09:25 — 👍 5 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0Yes!
17.11.2025 09:12 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0No, thanks for the ref.
14.11.2025 11:41 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0Another notable omission is Poincaré. I'm more embarrassed about this one, as I hadn't done my homework and should have read him more early in the writing process — but reading him at the end of the process provided validation and reassurance.
07.11.2025 04:56 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0As for Thom, he clearly influenced me (as I read a lot about catastrophe theory in my early 20s) but not through his philosophical writings and not in a way I can easily convey. Again, I wanted to write an accessible book, not a reference-complete one.
07.11.2025 04:56 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0Thanks! Re Holton and Bachelard: I never the read the former, and only read the latter during the book writing process (as a friend suggested I should) and decided not include him, because it wouldn't have added incremental clarity and I didn't want to write an "erudite" book.
07.11.2025 04:56 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
Russ Roberts’ “Econ Talk” is one of the most interesting podcasts.
This episode with @davidbessis.bsky.social is truly fascinating.
It got me thinking we should train students to think of research as “a dialogue between intuition and evidence.”
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...
❤️
10.10.2025 07:41 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
“We seek numbness, avoidance of pain, oblivion...I wake up every day aiming at Christianity, and often can’t even land on Epicureanism.”
@philipchristman.bsky.social sums up our times in his amazing @plough.bsky.social Book Tour Reviews:
www.plough.com/en/topics/cu...
Why you can't fit Terry Tao on a bell curve, and why genius is too extreme for genetics:
davidbessis.substack.com/p/why-genes-...
If you're curious about absurdly over-engineered protocols for drawing winners of public giveaways — or if you just want a free copy of my book — take a look at my new long form post.
davidbessis.substack.com/p/paperback-...
"Successful math becomes so intuitive that it no longer feels like math." New long form post...
davidbessis.substack.com/p/the-magic-...
