Overview

In this irreverent and illuminating audiobook, acclaimed writer and scientist Leonard Mlodinow shows us how randomness, chance, and probability reveal a tremendous amount about our daily lives, and how we misunderstand the significance of everything from a casual conversation to a major financial setback. As a result, successes and failures in life are often attributed to clear and obvious causes, when in actuality they are more profoundly influenced by chance. The rise and fall of your favorite movie star or the most reviled CEO--in fact, all our destinies--reflects chance as much as planning and innate abilities. Even Roger Maris, who beat Babe Ruth's single season home run record, was in all likelihood not great, but just lucky. How could it have happened that a wine was given five out of five stars by one journal and called the worst wine of the decade by another? Wine ratings, school grades, political polls, and many other things in daily life are less reliable than we believe. By showing us the true nature of chance and revealing the psychological illusions that cause us to misjudge the world around us, Mlodinow gives fresh insight into what is really meaningful and how we can make decisions based on a deeper truth. From the classroom to the courtroom, from financial markets to supermarkets, from the doctor's office to the Oval Office, Mlodinow's insights will intrigue, awe, and inspire. Offering listeners not only a tour of randomness, chance and probability but also a new way of looking at the world, this original, unexpected journey reminds us that much in our lives is about as predictable as the steps of a stumbling man afresh from a night at a bar.

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9798200565900

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Reviews

"""[Mlodinow is] the perfect guy to reveal the ways unrelated elements can relate and connect."" -- ""Miami Hearald"" ""Challenges our institutions about probability and explores how, by randomness, we can better grasp our world."" -- ""Seed"" ""In The Drunkard's Walk Leonard Mlodinow provides readers with a wonderfully readable guide to how the mathematical laws of randomness affect our lives. With insight he shows how the hallmarks of chance are apparent in the course of events all around us. The understanding of randomness has brought about profound changes in the way we view our surroundings, and our universe. I am pleased that Leonard has skillfully explained this important branch of mathematics."" -- ""Stephen Hawking"" ""Magnificent...challenges everything we think we know about how the works. The probability is high that you will be entertained and enlightened by this intelligent charmer."" -- ""Daniel Gilbert, author of Stumbling on Happiness"" ""Mlodinow writes in a breezy style, interspersing probabilistic mind-benders with portraits of theorists...The result is a readable crash course in randomness."" -- ""New York Times Book Review"""

Author Information

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. Sean Pratt, a working actor for over twenty-five years, has performed at numerous regional theaters around the country. He is the author of To Be or Wanna Be, and he has recorded over seven hundred books in just about every genre, earning eight AudioFile Earphones Awards and four Audie Award nominations. Lloyd James (a.k.a. Sean Pratt) has been narrating since 1996 and has recorded over six hundred audiobooks. He is a seven-time winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award and has twice been a finalist for the prestigious Audie Award. His critically acclaimed performances include Elvis in the Morning by William F. Buckley Jr. and Searching for Bobby Fischer by Fred Waitzkin, among others.

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