Chancing It

The Laws of Chance and What They Mean for You

By: Robert Matthews

Narrated by: Jeff Cummings

Over the years, some very smart people have thought they understood the rules of chance - only to fail dismally. Whether you call it probability, risk, or uncertainty, the workings of chance often defy common sense. Fortunately, advances in math and science have revealed the laws of chance, and understanding those laws can help in your everyday life.

In Chancing It, award-winning scientist and writer Robert Matthews shows how to understand the laws of probability and use them to your advantage. He gives you access to some of the most potent intellectual tools ever developed and explains how to use them to guide your judgments and decisions. By the end of the book, you will know:

• How to understand and even predict coincidences
• When an insurance policy is worth having
• Why "expert" predictions are often misleading
• How to tell when a scientific claim is a breakthrough or baloney
• When it makes sense to place a bet on anything from sports to stock markets

A groundbreaking introduction to the power of probability, Chancing It will sharpen your decision-making and maximize your luck.

©2016, 2017 Robert Matthews (P)2017 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved. Foreword © 2017 by Larry Gonick.

Interesting perspective on the laws of chance

This isn't my normal genre, but I learned something from it regarding interpreting statistics and the laws of chance. It was a bit dry in places because of my lack of prior knowledge on the subject, but it presented an interesting history of mathematicians, and how theories of chance and statistics and investing have come about and hopefully how those theories can be applied to every day experiences.

not what I thought it was

You will only find this book enjoyable if you like to calculate statistics. It doesn't impart any real knowledge on how to benefit from chance.