The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives

Leonard Mlodinow

Apr 2009 · Penguin UK

About this ebook

Leonard Mlodinow's The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives is an exhilarating, eye-opening guide to understanding our random world.

Randomness and uncertainty surround everything we do. So why are we so bad at understanding them?

The same tools that help us understand the random paths of molecules can be applied to the randomness that governs so many aspects of our everyday lives, from 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 reveals the psychological illusions that prevent us understanding everything from stock-picking to wine-tasting - read it, or risk becoming another victim of chance.

'A wonderfully readable guide to how the mathematical laws of randomness affect our lives' Stephen Hawking, author of A Brief History of Time

Ratings and reviews

This book is an enjoyable history and collection devoted to explaining what we think we know may not because of what we think happened. I do not devote much time to reading, but when I find a book I am willing to invest my time in from cover to bibliography I appreciate it's value. In this case it was more listening as I read/listened to and from work and hopefully absorbed some of the brilliance of this book. I am sure I will read it again.

A great introduction and insight to chaos theory. A well researched ingenious approach towards the subject.

About the author

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.