This is a book by James Gleick.

The topic of Chaos was all the rage among a few of my engineering colleagues back in the 1980s.  I thought it was vaguely interesting, but I didn’t spend any time finding out if it had any practical application for me.  When one of my simulation customers expressed interest, I dismissed it pretty handily.

Now this 20 year old book by a science writer explains the topic in a way that is not too hard for me to grasp given my background.

It does provide a different way of looking at things in mathematics, physics,  economics, biology, medicine, psychiatry, social science, and more.

The traditional education in science and engineering biases most of us from looking at the world this way.  Having this aspect cut off from our train of thought precludes our understanding of a lot of important phenomena.

After I finish this book, I am dying to find out what has happened in this field in the 20 years since this book was written.