This summary really undersells the book IMO. It's one of the more interesting books I've read in that it is not structured linearly. He introduces a few ideas which have very particular language he defines in the remainder of the book which is essentially a dictionary. If you don't come from a math-y background and you are trying to get into serious mathematics, this definitely helps to 'lift the veil' on how you might think about math. Most of the criticism I've heard about the book comes from
Paraphrased from memory:
"I'm not claiming to have discovered anything special here. What I think I'm doing is describing the mental operations that lots of people perform, consciously or unconsciously, to solve different sorts of problems. You probably already do some or all of what I'm describing."
I found that he was describing some thought patterns that I am extremely familiar with because I use them so often. Making them explicit was pretty cool. I haven't gotten around to his follow-up works yet, but I look forward to them.
Paraphrased from memory: "I'm not claiming to have discovered anything special here. What I think I'm doing is describing the mental operations that lots of people perform, consciously or unconsciously, to solve different sorts of problems. You probably already do some or all of what I'm describing."
I found that he was describing some thought patterns that I am extremely familiar with because I use them so often. Making them explicit was pretty cool. I haven't gotten around to his follow-up works yet, but I look forward to them.