Stop Doing Graph Theory

Stop Doing Graph Theory is a polemical screed criticizing the study of graphs and their properties. Down with degrees! Away with adjacency! Stop going in cycles: graph theorists are barking up the wrong tree!

Most of the problems in the modern world are directly connected to graph theory. If graph theorists like Kőnig, Vizing, and Menger were not so fond of proving inequalities, perhaps there wouldn't be so much inequality in today's society. Their cliques and their greedy algorithms concentrate wealth among the few; their strange quibbles about drawing utility lines leave many homes without water or electricity; their insistence on coloring maps with four colors promotes international factionalism. If we did away with the odd holes and antiholes that graph theorists love so much, our world could be perfect.

To paraphrase what Farkas Bolyai wrote in a letter to his son János, you must not attempt to do graph theory! I know this path to the very end. I have traversed this bottomless night, which extinguished all light and joy in my life. I entreat you, leave the science of graph theory alone. Learn from my example.

Start reading Stop Doing Graph Theory from Chapter 1, or click on one of the links below.