Leonard Mlodinow reveals the psychological illusions that prevent us understanding everything from stock-picking to wine-tasting, 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" is an exhilarating, eye-opening guide to understanding our random world - read it, so you won't be left a victim of chance. Randomness and uncertainty surround everything we do. So why are we so bad at understanding them? This title reveals the psychological illusions that prevent us understanding everything from stock-picking to wine-tasting.…mehr
Leonard Mlodinow reveals the psychological illusions that prevent us understanding everything from stock-picking to wine-tasting, 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" is an exhilarating, eye-opening guide to understanding our random world - read it, so you won't be left a victim of chance.Randomness and uncertainty surround everything we do. So why are we so bad at understanding them? This title reveals the psychological illusions that prevent us understanding everything from stock-picking to wine-tasting.
Leonard Mlodinow is a theoretical physicist and writer who has taught at Caltech and the Max Planck Institute of Physics. With Stephen Hawking, he co-authored two best-selling books: A Briefer History of Time and The Grand Design. He is also the best-selling author of The Drunkard's Walk, Subliminal and Elastic.
Inhaltsangabe
Prologue Chapter 1: Peering through the Eyepiece of Randomness The hidden role of chance . . . when human beings can be outperformed by a rat. Chapter 2: The Laws of Truths and Half-Truths The basic principles of probability and how they are abused . . . why a good story is often less likely to be true than a flimsy explanation. Chapter 3: Finding Your Way through a Space of Possibilities A framework for thinking about random situations . . . from a gambler in plague-ridden Italy to Let’s Make a Deal. Chapter 4: Tracking the Pathways to Success How to count the number of ways in which events can happen, and why it matters . . . the mathematical meaning of expectation. Chapter 5: The Dueling Laws of Large and Small Numbers The extent to which probabilities are reflected in the results we observe . . . Zeno’s paradox, the concept of limits, and beating the casino at roulette. Chapter 6: False Positives and Positive Fallacies How to adjust expectations in light of past events or new knowledge . . . mistakes in conditional probability from medical screening to the O. J. Simpson trial and the prosecutor’s fallacy. Chapter 7: Measurement and the Law of Errors The meaning and lack of meaning in measurements . . . the bell curve and wine ratings, political polls, grades, and the position of planets. Chapter 8: The Order in Chaos How large numbers can wash out the disorder of randomness . . . or why 200,000,000 drivers form a creature of habit. Chapter 9: Illusions of Patterns and Patterns of Illusion Why we are often fooled by the regularities in chance events . . . can a million consecutive zeroes or the success of Wall Street gurus be random? Chapter 10: The Drunkard’s Walk Why chance is a more fundamental conception than causality . . . Bruce Willis, Bill Gates, and the normal accident theory of life. Acknowledgments Notes Index
Prologue Chapter 1: Peering through the Eyepiece of Randomness The hidden role of chance . . . when human beings can be outperformed by a rat. Chapter 2: The Laws of Truths and Half-Truths The basic principles of probability and how they are abused . . . why a good story is often less likely to be true than a flimsy explanation. Chapter 3: Finding Your Way through a Space of Possibilities A framework for thinking about random situations . . . from a gambler in plague-ridden Italy to Let’s Make a Deal. Chapter 4: Tracking the Pathways to Success How to count the number of ways in which events can happen, and why it matters . . . the mathematical meaning of expectation. Chapter 5: The Dueling Laws of Large and Small Numbers The extent to which probabilities are reflected in the results we observe . . . Zeno’s paradox, the concept of limits, and beating the casino at roulette. Chapter 6: False Positives and Positive Fallacies How to adjust expectations in light of past events or new knowledge . . . mistakes in conditional probability from medical screening to the O. J. Simpson trial and the prosecutor’s fallacy. Chapter 7: Measurement and the Law of Errors The meaning and lack of meaning in measurements . . . the bell curve and wine ratings, political polls, grades, and the position of planets. Chapter 8: The Order in Chaos How large numbers can wash out the disorder of randomness . . . or why 200,000,000 drivers form a creature of habit. Chapter 9: Illusions of Patterns and Patterns of Illusion Why we are often fooled by the regularities in chance events . . . can a million consecutive zeroes or the success of Wall Street gurus be random? Chapter 10: The Drunkard’s Walk Why chance is a more fundamental conception than causality . . . Bruce Willis, Bill Gates, and the normal accident theory of life. Acknowledgments Notes Index
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