The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives

New
Paperback
2009
$12.67

Leonard Mlodinow's The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives is an exhilarating, eye-opening guide to understanding our random world. Randomness and uncertainty surround everything we do. So why are we so bad at understanding them? The same tools that help us understand the random paths of molecules can be applied to the randomness that governs so many aspects of our everyday lives, from winning the lottery to road safety, and reveals the truth about the success of sporting heroes and film stars, and even how to make sense of a blood test. The Drunkard's Walk reveals the psychological illusions that prevent us understanding everything from stock-picking to wine-tasting - read it, or risk becoming another victim of chance. A wonderfully readable guide to how the mathematical laws of randomness affect our lives . (Stephen Hawking, author of A Brief History of Time ). Delightful...Our lives may be shaped by chance, but they are enriched by awareness - just the sort of awareness that this fascinating book will give you . ( Guardian ). Mlodinow writes in a breezy style, interspersing probabilistic mind-benders with portraits of theorists...The result is a readable crash course in randomness . ( The New York Times ). Please read The Drunkard's Walk by Leonard Mlodinow, a history, explanation, and exaltation of probability theory...The results are mind-bending . ( Fortune ). Leonard Mlodinow has a Ph.D., has been a member of the faculty of the California Institute of Technology and a television writer in Hollywood, as well as developing many award winning CD-ROMs. He is currently Vice President of Emerging Technologies and R&D at Scholastic Inc. and lives in New York City. His previous books include A Brief History of Time , which he co-authored, as well as Euclid's Window and Some Time with Feynman , both published by Penguin.

Synopsis

Leonard Mlodinow's "The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives" is an exhilarating, eye-opening guide to understanding our random world. Randomness and uncertainty surround everything we do. So why are we so bad at understanding them? The same tools that help us understand the random paths of molecules can be applied to the randomness that governs so many aspects of our everyday lives, from winning the lottery to road safety, and reveals the truth about the success of sporting heroes and film stars, and even how to make sense of a blood test. "The Drunkard's Walk" reveals the psychological illusions that prevent us understanding everything from stock-picking to wine-tasting - read it, or risk becoming another victim of chance. "A wonderfully readable guide to how the mathematical laws of randomness affect our lives". (Stephen Hawking, author of "A Brief History of Time"). "Delightful...Our lives may be shaped by chance, but they are enriched by awareness - just the sort of awareness that this fascinating book will give you". ("Guardian"). "Mlodinow writes in a breezy style, interspersing probabilistic mind-benders with portraits of theorists...The result is a readable crash course in randomness". ("The New York Times"). "Please read "The Drunkard's Walk" by Leonard Mlodinow, a history, explanation, and exaltation of probability theory...The results are mind-bending". ("Fortune"). Leonard Mlodinow has a Ph.D., has been a member of the faculty of the California Institute of Technology and a television writer in Hollywood, as well as developing many award winning CD-ROMs. He is currently Vice President of Emerging Technologies and R&D at Scholastic Inc. and lives in New York City. His previous books include "A Brief History of Time", which he co-authored, as well as "Euclid's Window" and "Some Time with Feynman", both published by Penguin.

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 272
Edition: 1
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 02 Apr 2009
ISBN 10: 0141026472
ISBN 13: 9780141026473

Media Reviews

'Mlodinow writes in a breezy style, interspersing probabilistic mind-benders with portraits of theorists ! The result is a readable crash course in randomness.' New York Times 'If you're strong enough to have some of your favorite assumptions challenged, please read the Drunkard's Walk, a history, explanation, and exaltation of probability theory.' Fortune magazine

Author Bio

Leonard Mlodinow has a Ph.D., has been a member of the faculty of the California Institute of Technology and a television writer in Hollywood, as well as developing many award winning CD-Roms. He is currently Vice President of Emerging Technologies and R&D at Scholastic Inc. and lives in New York City. His previous books include A Brief History of Time, which he co-authored, and Euclid's Window and Some Time with Feynman both published by Penguin.