The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives
With the born storyteller's command of narrative and imaginative approach, Leonard Mlodinow vividly demonstrates how our lives are profoundly informed by chance and randomness and how everything from wine ratings and corporate success to school grades and political polls are less reliable...
show more
With the born storyteller's command of narrative and imaginative approach, Leonard Mlodinow vividly demonstrates how our lives are profoundly informed by chance and randomness and how everything from wine ratings and corporate success to school grades and political polls are less reliable than we believe. By showing us the true nature of chance and revealing the psychological illusions that cause us to misjudge the world around us, Mlodinow gives us the tools we need to make more informed decisions. From the classroom to the courtroom and from financial markets to supermarkets, Mlodinow's intriguing and illuminating look at how randomness, chance, and probability affect our daily lives will intrigue, awe, and inspire.
show less
Format: paperback
ISBN:
9780307275172 (0307275175)
ASIN: 307275175
Publish date: May 5th 2009
Publisher: Vintage
Pages no: 238
Edition language: English
Category:
Non Fiction,
History,
Science,
Popular Science,
Business,
Economics,
Philosophy,
Sociology,
Psychology,
Social Science,
Mathematics
This is just a really good, basic introduction to understanding statistics and their applications to social sciences and natural sciences, sports, the world of finance, and everywhere we see patterns in life. It has a heavy historical slant, telling the stories of how theories were developed, and I...
~~Moved from GR~~ The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives by Leonard Mlodinow Agh, I love this book. The first time I read it, I hadn't yet encountered The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference or Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everythi...
If we were all unfeeling iRobots (floor cleaners) who respond to the random encounters in our lives by simply changing direction then the premise of this book is justified, for we would all follow our individual drunkard's walks to whatever probabilistic future awaits us. However taking this a step ...
My bone to pick with this popular stats/probability text is that Mlodinow indulges in the same sloppy examples and logic that marred so many of my math and science classes. If you're going to talk probability, stick with dice. As a nerd from the early days of Dungeons and Dragons, I completely under...
I think this book is a must-read for any person who considers themselves an informed citizen: it reveals the misunderstanding of probability and statistics that a majority of the population has and will enable you to determine the true significance of polls, surveys, and statistics thrown out in cur...