The Drunkard's walk
Subtitle: how randomness rules our lives
By: Leonard Mlodinow.
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: Pantheon Books
Published: 2008
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 252
ISBN-13: 9780375424045
Subjects: Random variables; Probabilities; Chance
Description: An irreverent look at how randomness influences our lives, and how our successes and failures are far more dependent on chance events than we recognize.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Peering through the eyepiece of randomness: the hidden role of chance . . . when human beings can be outperformed by a rat; title: 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; title: 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; title: 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; title: 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; title: 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; title: 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; title: 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; title: 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?; title: The drunkard's walk: why chance is a more fundamental conception than causality . . . Bruce Willis, Bill Gates, and the normal accident theory of life.