How Randomness Rules Our Lives - The Drunkard's Walk

I've read Mlodinow's "Subliminal" first. That is a later effort and actually a lot more accessible than this volume here. Nevertheless, I think it is safe for me to say that both volumes will have literally changed my life.

Rich with entertaining anecdotes from the history of our knowledge of probability and science; written with wit and love. I can't recommend this book enough.

Thank you Mr. Mlodinow!

I read this book while being driven to work everyday for about 5 days straight, and couldn't put it down. There are so many interesting things he brings up. Any review that talks about how this book isn't a good enough account or any mathematics etc, is simply being ridiculous, since the author is simply trying to tell a story. He is not trying to design a text book. These over educated students who have spent their whole lives inside the institution just don't know any better. I would know too since I have been to university for years.

Simply put, this book brings to light so much information and shows you that just about everything seems to occur by random chance.

The most interesting part for me was the part on investment portfolio managers and the fact that their success is definately by chance and that more than a simple majority of the time, you could do just as good, provided you were educated enough to know how to play the market.

A VERY good book.

I am involved in Risk Management in Healthcare. No other concept is more important to us than randomness. It is also the least well appreciated concept in Management on Healthcare.THis book helps create context for explaining the concepts and is remarkably well done. I purchased another book from the author and found it similarly well researched and explained. This is very well done.

Dr. Ed Boudreau

Even if you were a whiz in statistics in college, you need to read this book, and study the hard parts. Just grasping the fact that almost all fame based on measured achievements in sports, literature, and the arts - and even the sciences - actually results from a run of luck will give you heart. Try it, you'll like it.

Wonderful. This book changed my life.
This stretch is now part of my philosophy of live: "But ability does not guarantee achievement, nor is achievement proportional to ability. And so it is important to always keep in mind the other term in the equation—the role of chance."

This is a seemingly random book to read. At first it looks like there is a message to it, and then it veers off into an entertaining history of the development of a mathematical understanding of randomness. I was disappointed at the loss of purpose as the book progressed, but enjoyed the ride through history.

And then -- as suddenly as an accident -- the purposelessness of the book disappeared and I was back into a quick tract on what it means for me personally to underestimate randomness, or to be randomly underestimated by others.

I'm a rational man. I nearly cried from lost chances, and hope for other chances, in a world in which randomness can create luck if we are just willing to put ourselves into its path.

I don't quite know what to make of this book, but I think it has made me a better man to have read it.

Thank you, Leonard.

I hated probability and statistics in college, but this book is still an enjoyable read. There are a lot of references to situations that are commonly experienced by the every day person. Granted, this is probably more suited to the educated person who has recognized and pondered some of these ideas previously, but maybe other people will find some of the explainations insightful if not amazing.

Leonard Mlodinow is a person of vibrant intelligence. He is also an excellent story teller. The combination makes truly an excellent book. A reader with knowledge of randomness approaching zero may find this book illuminating, certainly engaging. The text is sparkled with humor, anecdotes, the author's knowledge and passion is almost palpable.
I only wish that the author extends his work into more modern and complex aspects of that field. So, Leonard Mlodinov, will we hear from you again? The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives

Dr Mlodinow makes probability theory understandable even if you don't have a degree in mathematics. I recommend it highly to anyone who always heard that common sense was not sufficient to understand the subject. He makes it simple to anyone with a logical mind.

Quite an Interesting book that really makes you think about probabilities and randomness in general. A lot of the information that Mlodinow explains, is information everyone WILL use regardless of what you want to be in the future.

As a high school Statistics teacher, I thoroughly enjoyed the historical background provided. My students have enjoyed the interesting stories I've been able to share as a result of reading Mlodinow's work. I couldn't put this book down!

Anyone who thinks that they know how things work needs to read this book. Leonard Mlodinow clearly explains why so much of how we see the world is limited by our misunderstanding of randomness in our world.
If you liked his book Subliminal you will enjoy this book.

This is a treasure trove of tidbits about how the development of the laws of probabilities have, or should have, informed the way we lead our daily lives.

In the first part of the book, the author tackles such puzzlers of probability as the Monty Hall Dilemma and the chance of having at least one girl if you have two children. In some ways, the counter-intuitive answers to these questions have been better explained by any number of other authors such as Marilyn vos Savant in her collection of articles entitled “The Power of Logical Thinking.”

But there’s still a great deal of new, arresting information here, including a lot of the history of mathematics. It’s fascinating to be reminded how the ancient Greeks pursued truth without a consistent way of representing numbers – without a decimal system, without the concept of zero. It’s also interesting to learn how the laws of chance were eventually developed, not as a purely scientific endeavor, but more often by gamblers interested in finding winning strategies.

You might encounter a few little stumbling blocks along the way. There’s a bit of sexism, as when the author uses Oprah’s fluctuating weight to demonstrate the principle of “sample space.” Then, since the author is British, he might occasionally be using terms in somewhat different ways than you’d find in a typical American classroom. For example, he doesn’t make clear the same distinction between the “average” and the “mean” that I learned in school.

However, this book really swings into delivering useful information in its last third. It helps rationalize the seeming portents and patterns behind Ouija boards, séances, and a host of what many persist in interpreting as “signs.” You’ll garner sound advice on topics such as the efficacy of hiring a financial manager with a winning track record. You’ll learn whether or not you get your money’s worth by buying the most expensive vodka and wine – whether or not you need to be wary of moving into an area that has been labeled as having a “cancer cluster” – whether you should judge team coaches or corporate executives (or anyone) by the last four or five years of results that their institutions realized during their leadership.

All-in-all, this book is fun, informative, and provides valuable tips on how to rationally judge whether or not the odds are really in your favor.

Thought provoking, fascinating read from beginning to end. Does a great job of balancing the hard math with plenty of readable anecdotes and real world examples. This book will challenge your assumptions and make you think. Definitely worth a look.

This book is a clearly written account of probability theory, without complex mathematics. Very easy to read, and very entertaining, it discusses the history of probability and the effect of randomness in our lives today.

This book was both smart and funny, entertaining and quite educational. I was kind of hoping that more of the mathematic examples would be useful in everyday life, but the essence is easy: if you wanna succeed, double your failure rate. The coin is tossed, people. Buy this book.

Anyone who can write about probability and its history and make you want to keep reading should be considered a really good author. I always avoided math in high school and college but Mr. Mlodinow really makes it interesting by linking real life to probability, and by bringing the famous figures in mathematics to life- something you'd never get in a classroom textbook. His humor keeps you interested, too.

A great read for one who is interested in comprehending Randomness,Probability,and Certainty. I read this book three times,each time grasping more of the fundamentals and laws governing these concepts.I purchased six additional copies of this book and distributed them to my friends.

I purchased this along with another book, Sway (not yet read) and The Guinea Pig Diaries.

I've enjoyed GP Diaries, and Drunkard's Walk was thought provoking.

I'd purchased these books as airplane reading. Drunkard's Walk was a bit more thoughtful than an airplane read, but raised some interesting ideas. It was worth the backups I had to do to re-acquaint myself with the content once I landed.

I did pass both along to a friend for enjoyment.

If you pass along a book, that's good, yes?

This is basically an introduction into probability. I would recommend it for a student. I think it is similiar to Freakonomics; reading the book does not make you an expert in the field, just makes the topic more interesting.

It's a very interesting book which improves your perspective of the random issues in life. The structure is compounded by 2 parts: a complete guide related with the concept of randomness, which are mentionated according to the historic milestones where to concepts were discovered, this part is writen with remarkably skill and the author achieves to turn this part as fun enough to keep you reading. The second part is an huge reflection of how should be watched the randomness in our life.