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jsilverman84's review against another edition
4.0
This book covered many interesting themes in decision-making theory, probability and statistics. Although the theoretical treatment of these subjects was not particularly thorough, the author wove them together by telling the stories of the lives of the theorists.
I was repeatedly amazed by how certain ways of thinking that seem "obvious" today (eg. averaging result of multiple samples) were so unintuitive when they were first presented to the world. It was fascinating to learn about the circumstances under which these breakthroughs occurred. If you're interested in revisiting the themes of Thinking Fast Slow and other works on the limits of human reasoning through a historical lens, I would recommend this book.
I was repeatedly amazed by how certain ways of thinking that seem "obvious" today (eg. averaging result of multiple samples) were so unintuitive when they were first presented to the world. It was fascinating to learn about the circumstances under which these breakthroughs occurred. If you're interested in revisiting the themes of Thinking Fast Slow and other works on the limits of human reasoning through a historical lens, I would recommend this book.
carlos_p14's review against another edition
informative
medium-paced
4.0
Interesting book for those who like statistics. Pretty easy to understand with cool curiosities of how numbers have influence on our lives
amarettto's review against another edition
4.0
This was a pretty good book in the sense that it touched on all the topics I expected a book on randomness and chance events to touch on. While it presents statistical analysis and examples of perceptions of chance in day-to-day life in an easily consumable fashion, I still won’t really say it’s a finish-in-one-sitting kind of book. I did need to mull over a few things it went over.
I particularly liked that it drove home the point that even random is actually ‘normal’. Outliers are part of what makes the entire distribution a normal one, which makes them not out of the ordinary either. Just less likely. This actually helped me apply these thoughts to my actual life and how I perceive negative and positive events (like one of the last few chapters goes into) and that in the grand scheme of things, a lot of your experiences are shaped out of luck. I tend to struggle with the notion of whether or not someone is completely in control of their destiny and understanding that they are only in control FOR THE MOST PART is humbling and oddly comforting because it feels like you have a partner, even though they may be a silent wildcard.
I particularly liked that it drove home the point that even random is actually ‘normal’. Outliers are part of what makes the entire distribution a normal one, which makes them not out of the ordinary either. Just less likely. This actually helped me apply these thoughts to my actual life and how I perceive negative and positive events (like one of the last few chapters goes into) and that in the grand scheme of things, a lot of your experiences are shaped out of luck. I tend to struggle with the notion of whether or not someone is completely in control of their destiny and understanding that they are only in control FOR THE MOST PART is humbling and oddly comforting because it feels like you have a partner, even though they may be a silent wildcard.
tashery's review against another edition
2.0
More like 2.5 stars. I give 3 stars to good books. 4 stars to excellent books. 5 stars to unputdownable books. This wasn't a bad book. Informative and factual. What it lacked was the entertainment... It took me almost two years to read this book as I kept reading a few pages, leaving for it for a while and picking it up again. As someone who is fascinated by numbers, psychology and all things in between, I didn't find this book very engaging or easy to read. Not the worst book of its genre but by far not the best... even though it was supposedly a best-seller.
fbroom's review against another edition
3.0
This was my fourth attempt (1 course in high school and 2 courses in college) to understand probability and statistics.
It is a journey into the world of randomness, probability and statistics.
Concepts, examples from real life and a historical tour that explores the lives of the people who influenced the field: Cardano, Pascal, Jakob Bernoulli, Leibniz, Bayes, Quetelet, Galton, Einstein and so many other famous mathematicians (I liked this part).
The concepts are difficult to grasp (at least to me) but the author tried so hard to simplify them by applying those concepts to real life examples and by explaining how those scientists actually came up with those concepts.
Maybe randomness as a concept is difficult. The author’s point is that we are so used to look for patterns all the time while many of the things that actually happened, happened randomly.
It is a journey into the world of randomness, probability and statistics.
Concepts, examples from real life and a historical tour that explores the lives of the people who influenced the field: Cardano, Pascal, Jakob Bernoulli, Leibniz, Bayes, Quetelet, Galton, Einstein and so many other famous mathematicians (I liked this part).
The concepts are difficult to grasp (at least to me) but the author tried so hard to simplify them by applying those concepts to real life examples and by explaining how those scientists actually came up with those concepts.
Maybe randomness as a concept is difficult. The author’s point is that we are so used to look for patterns all the time while many of the things that actually happened, happened randomly.
tintinintibet's review against another edition
4.0
I've read yet another in this genre....yes, this one was pretty good, but it might better be graded 3.5, since I think I had to try a second time to finish this one (started it many months ago and it went back to the library; saw it in a bookstore and couldn't remember if I'd finished -- happens when all these books blend together, or you get to be my age (?) -- and saw that the second half had some more entertaining stories that were new. The first half was kind of repetitive for me, but is a fairly concise treatment of the development of probability. So.....readable? Check. Personal stories included that add some human interest and give you a bit more than the same exact experiments that every other book in this genre mentions? Check. Some history? Check. Not too much technical jargon and with good pacing? Check check check check.....
So, which out of this genre (probability/decision-making/history/theory) do you read? This one might be second-ish for me. I still iiked Jonah Lehrer's book, though this one is more geared towards the history of math and probability, while Lehrer's is more around psychology.
So, which out of this genre (probability/decision-making/history/theory) do you read? This one might be second-ish for me. I still iiked Jonah Lehrer's book, though this one is more geared towards the history of math and probability, while Lehrer's is more around psychology.