The Ten Equations That Rule the World

And How You Can Use Them Too

By: David Sumpter

Narrated by: Sean Runnette

Is there a secret formula for getting rich? For going viral? For deciding how long to stick with your current job, Netflix series, or even relationship?

This book is all about the equations that make our world go round. Ten of them, in fact. They are integral to everything from investment banking to betting companies and social media giants. And they can help you to increase your chance of success, guard against financial loss, live more healthfully, and see through scaremongering. They are known by only the privileged few - until now.

With wit and clarity, mathematician David Sumpter shows that it isn't the technical details that make these formulas so successful. It is the way they allow mathematicians to view problems from a different angle - a way of seeing the world that anyone can learn.

Empowering and illuminating, The Ten Equations shows how math really can change your life.

Should have left preachy SJW opinions out

Enjoyable listen. As other reviewers stated, the author veered off course in the middle of the book.

I’d be interested in a 2nd edition with discussion of the way some Covid modelling was tragically misaligned with reality and the horrendous real world implications of this.

Disappointing and couldn’t finish.

Excellent narrator. He did a great job of keeping me engaged through all the numbers. The first few chapters were entertaining and enlightening. After that it devolved into a apologetics for leftist ideologies.

important equations, spoiled by politics

I really wanted to like this book. Your credit would be better spent on Algorithms to Live By.

I'm very used to nutty professors sneaking their social agenda into math examples, and Sumpter is no exception. But the last chapter was just too preachy. I was hoping for a light-hearted math text. Although the equations are timeless, I predict this book will not age well.

Meh. Not for everyone but not a waste of time either.

If you don’t read a lot of these books and want a similar book, I suggest The Drunkards Walk by Leonard Mlodinow, or go with anything by Daniel Kahneman or Jordan Ellenberg.

The voice actor was not great. The content was worth it after filtering out so much bias. But also noticed many inconsistencies, e.g. correcting the research about social media and teenagers by stating other independent contributing factors such as lack of sleep, as if those two things are unrelated. Noticed little things like that.

The general smugness of some positions he posits is off-putting, which unlike Taleb, the content doesn’t make up for it. I think this is amplified by the voice actor though, and didn’t get that as much when reading physical copy.

If you don’t have a lot of time, skip this one. I’m glad I read it though.

A poorly crafted attempt to leverage mathematics to justify a sociopolitical perspective

First off, I loved the narration. Unique voice and refreshingly different.
The book starts off with intriguing and compelling insights into novel mathematic application. Then it takes a truly bizarre abrupt turn into the authors personal opinions. An astute reader with even the most basic understanding of confirmation bias will see red flags all over this book. There are repeated personal attacks against public intellectuals and researchers which step completely outside the premise of the book and contain criticisms of people for actions he later admits to taking himself. As example, statements included about the state of free speech in academia were not only complete non sequitur, but are based on a single data point (his experience); this may be soothing to someone with a particular viewpoint prior to opening this book but present obvious problems when presented in the same text stating that appropriate decisions must be guided by the aggregation of as much data as possible. As an applied mathematics student with decades of professional experience in risk management, I found the reductionist errors in this book to be saddening. What could have amounted to a fun exploration of where mathematics is advancing positive and negative societal levers degraded into a poorly packaged and often contradictory rant.