The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives
by Leonard Mlodinow
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Book Summary Information
Author: Leonard MlodinowEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-05-13
ISBN: 0375424040
Number of pages: 272
Publisher: Pantheon
Book Reviews of The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives
Book Review: Hands down the best book on probability written for the general public
Summary: 5 Stars
I am typically disappointed with pop-science books written for the general public... they usually don't present enough data for me to make up my own mind about their conclusions... and when they do present data, they almost never provide enough details to determine whether or not their results are "statistically significant." In other words, how do they know that their "supporting data" isn't just a great big coincidence???
This book bucks that trend big time, and the results are very impressive.
The author wrote this like a history book about the field of statistics, and how it evolved (slowly) over they years. But, every time the author introduces a new concept in statistics, he also shares real-world situations where people made terrible mistakes because they didn't understand these basic principles. It highlights very well that in general, people are terrible at recognizing randomness, and thus will always be controlled by it!
Randomness is very unsettling to people, as such we have a tendency to give order and purpose to the world... People frequently see patters where they just don't exist. One great example of this was discovered fairly recently, called "regression towards the mean." The author's example was as follows:
A psychologist was visiting a group of Air Force instructors after World War 2 to help them design a new training program. He was telling the instructors that positive feedback was much more effective at getting people to learn than negative feedback. At which point, an instructor jumped up to yell at the psychologist for talking hogwash.
"When my students have a good day and I praise them, the next day they slack off and don't do as well. But, if they do badly and I yell at them well, the next day they do MUCH better. So don't tell me this 'positive feedback' garbage works, because it doesn't!"
Surprisingly, both the psychologist and the instructor were right! Regression Towards the Mean means that on average, people perform at the average of their abilities. It doesn't sound monumental, but people forget it sometimes. If you flip a coin enough times, eventually you'll get 100 heads in a row. Likewise, if you do a task enough times, eventually you're going to have a 100-item winning streak that is entirely random luck... and people will incorrectly assume that it's because of greater competency. Sure, you need to be competent enough to perform the task, and you need to do the task very frequently... but after that, any winning streaks are probably just dumb luck.
It's the same reason why some mutual fund managers do better than others, but only for a few years... it's why Roger Maris beat Babe Ruth's home run record, and then very few records after that... it's why some CEOs do amazingly well at one company, but then crash and burn when put in charge of another. You need only be as talented as the average to have a great winning streak...
My other favorite section was when the author covered false positives on medical tests. Most people -- most doctors even -- aren't good enough with statistics to understand when medical tests lead you astray. Towards the end of the book -- after a highly readable introduction to statistical theory -- he presents the following question:
* assume breast cancer is present in 0.8% of the population
* assume a mammogram says a healthy person has cancer 7% of the time (false positive)
* if a mammogram says you have cancer, what are the odds you actually have cancer?
Most people would assume that the answer is 93%, since there is a 7% false positive rate. When asked to a bunch of doctors, the average answer was actually around 70%. But the correct answer is much different: if you test positive for cancer, there is only a 10% chance you actually have cancer!!!
How is this possible? Do the math... out of 1000 people getting a mammogram, 8 will have breast cancer (0.8% incident), and be told so. However, because of the false positive rate of 7%, another 70 people will be told that they have cancer, when in fact they don't! That's 78 people who test positive for cancer, but only 8 actually have it... therefore, if you test positive for breast cancer, there's only about a 10% chance you actually need to worry. In fact, even if you get 6 positive mammograms in a row, you still have better than a 50/50 chance of being totally healthy! Medical tests for rare diseases are fraught with this kind of problem, and it's a shame doctors aren't better at telling their patients the true odds.
Overall, I would recommend this book to everybody. It is really easy to read, and it is chocked full of examples where very smart people made very bad decisions... simply because they didn't understand how randomness rules our lives.
Summary of The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives
In this irreverent and illuminating book, acclaimed writer and scientist Leonard Mlodinow shows us how randomness, change, 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 cases, when in actuality they are more profoundly influenced by chance.The rise and fall of your favorite movie star of the most reviled CEO--in fact, of all our destinies--reflects as much as planning and innate abilities. Even the legendary Roger Maris, who beat Babe Ruth's single-season home run record, was in all likelihood not great but just lucky. And it might be shocking to realize that you are twice as likely to be killed in a car accident on your way to buying a lottery ticket than you are to win the lottery.
How could it have happened that a wine was given five out of five stars, the highest rating, in one journal and in another it was called the worst wine of the decade? Mlodinow vividly demonstrates how 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 change 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 readers 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 fresh from a night at the bar.
Amazon Guest Review: Stephen Hawking
Published in 1988, Stephen Hawking?s A Brief History of Time became perhaps one of the unlikeliest bestsellers in history: a not-so-dumbed-down exploration of physics and the universe that occupied the London Sunday Times bestseller list for 237 weeks. Later successes include 1995?s A Briefer History of Time, The Universe in a Nutshell, and God Created the Integers: The Mathematical Breakthroughs that Changed History. Stephen Hawking is Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge.
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 Decision-Making & Problem Solving Books
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