The Drunkard's Walk
How Randomness Rules Our Lives
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The Drunkard's Walk
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Narrated by:
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Sean Pratt
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By:
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Leonard Mlodinow
About this listen
The rise and fall of your favorite movie star or the most reviled CEO - in fact, all our destinies - reflects chance as much as planning and innate abilities. Even Roger Maris, who beat Babe Ruth's single season home-run record, was in all likelihood not great but just lucky.
How could it have happened that a wine was given five out of five stars by one journal and called the worst wine of the decade by another? 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 chance 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 listeners 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 afresh from a night at a bar.
©2008 Leonard Mlodinow (P)2008 Gildan Media CorpListeners also enjoyed...
Critic reviews
"If you're strong enough to have some of your favorite assumptions challenged, please listen to The Drunkard's Walk....a history, explanation, and exaltation of probability theory....The results are mind-bending." ( Fortune)
What listeners say about The Drunkard's Walk
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Jan W. H. Schnupp
- 02-06-14
The lighter and the darker sides of probability
Mathematical subjects can be awfully dry, but in this book the author weaves a highly accessible, enjoyable and enlightening tapestry of the history of mathematical thinking on luck and chance. Thought provoking examples of the counter-intuitive nature of randomness and chance are interwoven with little vignettes of the sometimes surprising episodes of the lives of pioneering probability theorists. Take for example Cardano, who invented probability theory to beat others at dice games in order to pay his way through renaissance medical school. He rose to become chair of the medical school, only to be betrayed to the inquisition by his own incestuous and cruel children who were maneuvering for "cushy" jobs as full time torturers and henchmen. What are the odds of that? Or, indeed, what are the odds that a mother will kill two of her children? Or that OJ Simpson got away with murder? You don't have to die to find out.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Paul Chase
- 30-08-17
Not an easy listen but worth it
It's an enjoyable listen but not exactly light hearted as the title would hint at. Saying that if you like learning interesting facts and theories about statistics it is worth listening to.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Mick Conroy
- 02-07-15
As if Bill Bryson did statistics!
Entertaining, with just they right mix of history, interesting anecdotes, applied examples and accomplished narration.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Anonymous User
- 07-03-21
Not a randomly awarded 5 stars.
Thoroughly enjoyable, amusing and educative treatise on randomness and it implications for us humans.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- j a boult
- 22-06-23
Interesting, informative and enlightening
Really enjoyable listen. The Mathematics and science are discussed in a manner which should be accessible to all. Sits nicely alongside the work Daniel. Kahneman.
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