Author: Leonard Mlodinow
Title: The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives
Publication Info: Your Coach In A Box (2009), Edition: Unabridged, Audio CD
ISBN: 1596592796
Previously Read By Same Author: Feynman’s Rainbow: A Search for Beauty in Physics and in Life
Summary/Review: Mlodinow explores the role of randomness in our lives and probability and how the brains of human beings are unskilled at detecting such things. In addition to a lively and richly illustrated discussion of statistics there is a considerable amount of the history of mathematics and science, which the history geek in me enjoyed. A good book with a good message I’m sadly certain I’ll soon forget.
Recommended books: The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, The Numbers Game: Baseball’s Lifelong Fascination with Statistics by Alan Schwarz, How We Decide by Jonah Lehrer, UnSpun : finding facts in a world of disinformation by Brooks Jackson and Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell
Rating: ***