The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives |  | Author: Leonard Mlodinow
Publisher: Pantheon
List Price: $24.95
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as of 11/8/2009 00:54 CST details
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Seller: katbooksonline
Rating:  118 reviews
Sales Rank: 15344
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 8th Printing
Pages: 272
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.4 x 0.9
ISBN: 0375424040
Dewey Decimal Number: 519.2
EAN: 9780375424045
ASIN: 0375424040
Publication Date: May 13, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com Review
Amazon Guest Review: Stephen Hawking
Published in 1988, Stephen Hawkings A Brief History of Time became perhaps one of the unlikeliest bestsellers in history: a not-so-dumbed-down exploration of physics and the universe that occupied the London Sunday Times bestseller list for 237 weeks. Later successes include 1995s A Briefer History of Time, The Universe in a Nutshell, and God Created the Integers: The Mathematical Breakthroughs that Changed History. Stephen Hawking is Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge.  In The Drunkards Walk Leonard Mlodinow provides readers with a wonderfully readable guide to how the mathematical laws of randomness affect our lives. With insight he shows how the hallmarks of chance are apparent in the course of events all around us. The understanding of randomness has brought about profound changes in the way we view our surroundings, and our universe. I am pleased that Leonard has skillfully explained this important branch of mathematics. --Stephen Hawking
Product Description
In this irreverent and illuminating book, acclaimed writer and scientist Leonard Mlodinow shows us how randomness, change, and probability reveal a tremendous amount about our daily lives, and how we misunderstand the significance of everything from a casual conversation to a major financial setback. As a result, successes and failures in life are often attributed to clear and obvious cases, when in actuality they are more profoundly influenced by chance.
The rise and fall of your favorite movie star of the most reviled CEO--in fact, of all our destinies--reflects as much as planning and innate abilities. Even the legendary Roger Maris, who beat Babe Ruth's single-season home run record, was in all likelihood not great but just lucky. And it might be shocking to realize that you are twice as likely to be killed in a car accident on your way to buying a lottery ticket than you are to win the lottery.
How could it have happened that a wine was given five out of five stars, the highest rating, in one journal and in another it was called the worst wine of the decade? Mlodinow vividly demonstrates how wine ratings, school grades, political polls, and many other things in daily life are less reliable than we believe. By showing us the true nature of change and revealing the psychological illusions that cause us to misjudge the world around us, Mlodinow gives fresh insight into what is really meaningful and how we can make decisions based on a deeper truth. From the classroom to the courtroom, from financial markets to supermarkets, from the doctor's office to the Oval Office, Mlodinow's insights will intrigue, awe, and inspire.
Offering readers not only a tour of randomness, chance, and probability but also a new way of looking at the world, this original, unexpected journey reminds us that much in our lives is about as predictable as the steps of a stumbling man fresh from a night at the bar.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 118
 This book will change the way you look at the world. October 24, 2009
Sara N. Goehl
People had told me that it would change the way I look at the world, and I didn't really believe them, until I read it. I could not put it down, and recommended it to all my friends. The most interesting part was the section on how actors/musicians become famous, but the entire book is really interesting.
 Too Complicated for Me October 13, 2009
zorba (Bala Cynwyd, Pa USA)
Math and anything beyond the simplest logic is alien to me. I tried to stick it out for more than 100 pages, but I finally realized I wasn't understanding what the writer was talking about. Unlike many reviewers here, I enjoyed the stories and the biographies of medieval thinkers but couldn't understand all the probability language. I presume that this book will be enjoyable to people who understand statistics, probability and math. I don't and didn't finish the book.
Excellent October 11, 2009
Jason P. Demont (Phoenix, AZ USA)
This is a great book on randomness and on the historical development of tools to gain insight into randomness. The author's writing style is superb, and I hope that he writes more books.
 Outdated view of the normal curve October 3, 2009
Phyllis Huber
A major complaint is that this book completely ignores insights regarding the normal curve that have been achieved during the last half century. It is certainly true that historically, prominent researchers once thought normality occurs naturally, a view stemming from reading more into the central limit theorem than is warranted. About a century ago, Karl Pearson, in his first paper on statistics, coined the term normal distribution, roughly meaning that it is the curve that we expect to find. But Pearson later concluded that this view is incorrect. While the normal curve still plays an important role, it is now known that it can be highly misleading and can result in grossly inaccurate conclusions, even with large sample sizes. A nontechnical description of these insights, why practical problems were missed for so many years, and how they can be addressed, can be found in Fundamentals of Modern Statistical Methods: Substantially Improving Power and Accuracy
Good book September 26, 2009
Shawn (South Carolina)
This is a fun and informative book. It follows the progression of probability and statistics through history and shows how the concepts correlate to ones life. The only thing that kept this from being a five star book for me is that I wanted more about "how randomness rules our lives"... How minuscule random events compound on each other to thoroughly define our lives. But Mlodinow still does a very fine job in making the reader take an alternative perspective to the events that go on around him/her. I suppose I would give this book 4 1/2 stars if I could. Just don't expect the entire book to be about the drunkard's walk.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 118
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