From drunkards to chaos
Many of us have read Nassim Taleb’s The Black Swan or Fooled by Randomness. But what else is out there when it comes to grappling with chance, randomness and uncertainty? In this post, we highlight a few of our favorite books on the topic. Here’s hoping you will find something new and enjoyable.
The Drunkard’s Walk, Leonard Mlodinow
What do water molecules, stock traders, and other patterns in life share? They sometimes follow the drunkard’s walk.
Athenarium Article | Goodreads Reviews
The Art of Statistics, David Spiegelhalter
An enjoyable introduction to Type I and II errors, spurious models, delusions of discovery, and other dangers in statistics.
Athenarium Article | Goodreads Reviews
The Hidden Half, Michael Blastland
What can marmorkrebs and Mike Tyson teach us about life? That there is a hidden half to everything.
Athenarium Article | Goodreads Reviews
Radical Uncertainty, Mervyn King
Few problems in life are completely prestatable or quantifiable. Intellectual honesty demands we learn to grapple with such radical uncertainty.
Athenarium Article | Goodreads Reviews
Thinking in Bets, Annie Duke
A former World Series poker champion talks about thinking in bets. Can we apply her ideas to everyday life?
Athenarium Article | Goodreads Reviews
Do Dice Play God? Ian Stewart
From a clockwork universe to Bayesian brains, Ian Stewart takes us on a guided tour through the ‘Ages of Uncertainty.’
Athenarium Article | Goodreads Reviews
The Misbehavior of Markets, Benoit Mandelbrot
Benoit Mandelbrot sees statistical universalities across fields as disparate as fluid mechanics, fractal geometry, and quantitative finance.
Athenarium Article | Goodreads Reviews
Order Out of Chaos, Ilya Prigogine
A more technical read. Ilya Prigogine explores the nature of far-from-equilibrium systems, and how order and disorder might coexist.
Athenarium Article | Goodreads Reviews
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