THE DRUNKARD'S WALK

A few months ago, one of my former students recommended a book called The Drunkard's Walk by Leonard Mlodinow. Although the book should be of particular interest to a math person, its messages are meant for a much larger audience.

The author starts out by describing the origins of probability and statistics with a series of interesting little stories about mathematicians like Bernouilli, Cardano and De Moivre as well as lesser lights like Francis Galton, Thomas Bayes and Adolphe Quetelet. 

Along the way, Mlodinow explains concepts such as regression toward the mean, confirmation bias and significance testing using fascinating examples from fields like sports, the movie industry and gambling. 

If you ever wanted to know more about phenomena like the butterfly effect, the hot hand fallacy and the Monty Hall problem, this book is right up your alley. 

But much more than being a great resource for any aspiring math teacher, the book illustrates the role of chance in the world around us.

The author explains that so often in life, successful people are the ones who get that lucky break and yet how quickly we judge such people by their successes rather than their talent. He goes on to suggest that "once we understand the nature of random processes, we can alter the way we perceive the events that happen around us."

The book ends with this enlightening passage.

"My mother's experience has taught me that we ought to identify and appreciate the good luck we have and recognize the random events that contribute to our success. It has taught me, too, to accept the chance events that may cause us grief. Most of all it has taught me to appreciate the absence of bad luck, the absence of events that might have brought us down, and the absence of the disease, war, famine, and accident that have not - or have not yet - befallen us."

A belated thank you for the fine recommendation Antony.