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Ask HN: Foundational Books

2 points by leandot ↗ HN
Hi, I am looking for examples of technical books that are relatively short but well-written and provide a strong foundation for their topics. Such an example for me is Calculus Made Easy by Silvanus. Do you have other examples - e.g. about forecasting, linear algebra, graphics, etc.

10 comments

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A. I. Khinchin - Mathematical Foundations of Information Theory
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Emil Artin - Galois Theory. It has a super brief chapter on linear algebra and determinants that is extremely on-point.
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F. A. Ficken - The Simplex Method of Linear Programming
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Rudin - Principles of Mathematical Analysis (aka "baby rudin"). Not as short as the others, but worth the read.
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Friedman & Felleisen - The Little Schemer. The style doesn't work as well for me personally, but it's clearly very short and a popular way into the language and the way of thought.
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Stroustrup - A Tour of C++. Getting a bit dated, but given how large the language has become over the decades, having a short synopsis can be quite valuable.
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Milnor - Topology from the differentiable viewpoint. Super-brief classic.
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Spivak - Calculus on manifolds. Not my personal favorite, but it's short and super classic.