The Improbability Principle: Why Coincidences, Miracles, and Rare Events Happen Every Day
Written by David J. Hand
Narrated by Paul Hodgson
4.5/5
()
About this audiobook
In The Improbability Principle, the renowned statistician David J. Hand argues that extraordinarily rare events are anything but. In fact, they're commonplace. Not only that, we should all expect to experience a miracle roughly once every month.
But Hand is no believer in superstitions, prophecies, or the paranormal. His definition of "miracle" is thoroughly rational. No mystical or supernatural explanation is necessary to understand why someone is lucky enough to win the lottery twice, or is destined to be hit by lightning three times and still survive. All we need, Hand argues, is a firm grounding in a powerful set of laws: the laws of inevitability, of truly large numbers, of selection, of the probability lever, and of near enough.
Together, these constitute Hand's groundbreaking Improbability Principle. And together, they explain why we should not be so surprised to bump into a friend in a foreign country, or to come across the same unfamiliar word four times in one day. Hand wrestles with seemingly less explicable questions as well: what the Bible and Shakespeare have in common, why financial crashes are par for the course, and why lightning does strike the same place (and the same person) twice. Along the way, he teaches us how to use the Improbability Principle in our own lives—including how to cash in at a casino and how to recognize when a medicine is truly effective.
An irresistible adventure into the laws behind "chance" moments and a trusty guide for understanding the world and universe we live in, The Improbability Principle will transform how you think about serendipity and luck, whether it's in the world of business and finance or you're merely sitting in your backyard, tossing a ball into the air and wondering where it will land.
David J. Hand
David J. Hand is an emeritus professor of mathematics and a senior research investigator at Imperial College London. He is the former president of the Royal Statistical Society and the chief scientific adviser to Winton Capital Management, one of Europe’s most successful algorithmic-trading hedge funds. He is the author of several books, including The Information Generation: How Data Rules Our World, Statistics: A Very Short Introduction, and The Improbability Principle: Why Coincidences, Miracles, and Rare Events Happen Every Day, has published more than three hundred scientific papers. Hand lives in London, England.
Related to The Improbability Principle
Related audiobooks
The Doomsday Calculation: How an Equation that Predicts the Future Is Transforming Everything We Know About Life and the Universe Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Infinity Puzzle: Quantum Field Theory and the Hunt for an Orderly Universe Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Fluke: The Math and Myth of Coincidence Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Infinite Powers: How Calculus Reveals the Secrets of the Universe Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fantastic Numbers and Where to Find Them: A Cosmic Quest from Zero to Infinity Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Why?: What Makes Us Curious Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Success and Luck: Good Fortune and the Myth of Meritocracy Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Chancing It: The Laws of Chance and What They Mean for You Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5What the Luck?: The Surprising Role of Chance in Our Everyday Lives Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Journey to the Edge of Reason: The Life of Kurt Gödel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Models of the Mind: How Physics, Engineering and Mathematics Have Shaped Our Understanding of the Brain Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Hot Hand: The Mystery and Science of Streaks Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Prime Number Conspiracy: The Biggest Ideas in Math from Quanta Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fooled by the Winners: How Survivor Bias Deceives Us Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Love and Math: The Heart of Hidden Reality Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5It All Adds Up: The Story of People and Mathematics Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Joy of X: A Guided Tour of Math, from One to Infinity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Universe and the Teacup: The Mathematics of Truth and Beauty Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Knowledge Machine: How Irrationality Created Modern Science Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Most Elegant Equation: Euler's Formula and the Beauty of Mathematics Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Math of Life and Death Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Six Impossible Things: The Mystery of the Quantum World Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Just Six Numbers: The Deep Forces That Shape the Universe Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Struck by Genius: How a Brain Injury Made Me a Mathematical Marvel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Six Short Papers on Causality Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHawking Hawking: The Selling of a Scientific Celebrity Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Mathematics For You
Freakonomics Rev Ed Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How To Lie With Statistics Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Game Theory: Understanding the Mathematics of Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic at Work and at Home Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Once Upon a Prime: The Wondrous Connections Between Mathematics and Literature Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Golden Ratio: The Story of Phi, the World's Most Astonishing Number Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mastering Logical Fallacies: The Definitive Guide to Flawless Rhetoric and Bulletproof Logic Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Who Gets What—And Why: The New Economics of Matchmaking and Market Design Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Quantum Physics for Beginners Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Math of Life and Death Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Big Bang of Numbers: How to Build the Universe Using Only Math Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Is God a Mathematician? Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Joy of X: A Guided Tour of Math, from One to Infinity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Bake PI Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Measurement Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Perfect Bet: How Science and Math Are Taking the Luck Out of Gambling Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Once Upon an Algorithm: How Stories Explain Computing Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5It's a Numberful World: How Math Is Hiding Everywhere Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Math-ish: Finding Creativity, Diversity, and Meaning in Mathematics Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Statistics Crash Course Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Everything Is Predictable: How Bayesian Statistics Explain Our World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sacred Geometry: Unlocking the Spiritual Meaning of Various Shapes and Symbols Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A History of Pi Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Game Theory Basics Explained Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Basics of Statistics Explained Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Short Account of the History of Mathematics Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for The Improbability Principle
3 ratings0 reviews