The Drunkard's Walk

How Randomness Rules Our Lives

By: Leonard Mlodinow

Narrated by: Sean Pratt

Length: 9 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's summary

In this irreverent and illuminating audiobook, acclaimed writer and scientist Leonard Mlodinow shows us how randomness, chance, 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 causes, when in actuality they are more profoundly influenced by chance.

The rise and fall of your favorite movie star or the most reviled CEO - in fact, all our destinies - reflects chance as much as planning and innate abilities. Even Roger Maris, who beat Babe Ruth's single season home-run record, was in all likelihood not great but just lucky.

How could it have happened that a wine was given five out of five stars by one journal and called the worst wine of the decade by another? 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 chance 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 listeners 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 afresh from a night at a bar.

©2008 Leonard Mlodinow (P)2008 Gildan Media Corp

Critic reviews

"A wonderful guide to how the mathematical laws of randomness affect our lives." (Stephen Hawking)
"If you're strong enough to have some of your favorite assumptions challenged, please listen to The Drunkard's Walk....a history, explanation, and exaltation of probability theory....The results are mind-bending." ( Fortune)

Fascinating Material Slain by Abysmal Narration

I suspected I was in trouble once I heard the relentlessly cheerful introductory music and announcement from the self-improvement/business audiobook publisher. While I am accustomed to nonfiction books routinely being shortchanged in the narration department, this one sinks to a new low. Names and terms are mispronounced (seriously, how hard would have it been to check on the pronunciation of Erdos, the widely known mathematical equivalent of Kevin Bacon?). Most annoying, however, is the narrator's quirk of pausing... every three or four... words, whether or... not it makes...sense.

Despite the production values, it is clear that _Drunkard's Walk_ is an outstanding work of popular science. It presents important, often misunderstood topics in an accessible and entertaining way. Alas, unless you are extremely tolerant (or extremely stubborn), your best recourse is the dead-tree or e-book version.

Already knew some stats. Not good at triple speed

Any additional comments?

I listen to podcasts and audiobooks at triple speed all the time, but I had a tough time listening to this book. This is especially true when the author cites numbers, and there's lots of them. I'll take it as a good sign that I had some trouble because I must have been engaging my brain while the author speaks, so I miss some things he say.

If you listen at triple speed, be prepared to either listen to it again, or just sit relatively still. It was hard to multitask.

A good book overall though.

Great book

If you could sum up The Drunkard's Walk in three words, what would they be?

slow out thegate

What did you like best about this story?

It's interesting. I loved all the anecdotes about the mathematicians.

What does Sean Pratt bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

He did a good job. However, there is a point near the end where the narrator changes. I'm almost certain it's a different person. And I didn't like that. I wanted Sean Pratt to finish it.

Any additional comments?

The book was slow going at first, and I thought I wasn't going to like it. Most of what was in the early part of the book was a rehash of things I had heard in other books almost verbatim. But it got better. It got much better.

good book

A good book, well narrated. Thanks to Audible for having this in store. I would recommend this to my friends and family.

Who knew learning probability could be this fun?

I love this book. It takes everyday situations we are familiar with - gambling, baseball, game shows, health statistics, etc., and it provides a basic understanding of how to understand the "odds" of what will happen. Although there is some math, the author does a good job of keeping the math to the bare minimum. The illustrations are relevant and enjoyable. This information should be taught to every high school student. My favorite topic is the Monty Hall "Let's Make a Deal" game show situation. I share that with my co workers and friends and they always get it wrong. So if nothing else, the information in this book teaches you how to think properly when it comes to odds. Two thumbs up!

Great book

Great book, well worth the read.
A nice mix of economics, history and basic probability. Great for non-mathematicians and bad gamblers.

It does the job.....

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

I really like books that take something most people don't get or care to get and make it palatable. I was able to understand probability theory very well and that made my commute time work for me.

Would you recommend The Drunkard's Walk to your friends? Why or why not?

I don't know how many of my friends would like it as much as I did, but there is the limit of the content. Probability theory and the history of it only has so much that people can be interested in; I believe that many people would find only a few of the concepts useful on a daily basis, therefore making it difficult to stay focused for long periods of time.

Which scene was your favorite?

I thought that the draw in on Pascal's Triangle was very well done and I liked thinking of all the possibilities.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

Not likely, mostly because it isn't written that way. There are few books about mathematical theories that translate to the big screen.

Any additional comments?

It really did the job of explaining things that I wanted to know. I think that there are a lot of interesting aspects of different theories that are interesting when you know the history and development--and most importantly--the uses.

A bit of a disappointment

What did you like best about The Drunkard's Walk? What did you like least?

While there are some interesting things I learned, The Drunkard's Walk was a disappointment. Sure, math is a challenging topic to make interesting and the author tries, but his attempts at levity fall short, his discussion of the characters that gave us modern statistics is still dry, and I struggled just to finish the book.

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

Absolutely not.

Please read the script carefully.

I was a bit thrown off when the narrator referred Bertrand Russell's view of "Native realism" instead of the correct term, "Naive realism". To make matters worse it happened in the 1st chapter. Things like this have me on edge for the rest of the audiobook.

It's almost worse than narrators who can't properly pronounce French, Latin or German words and still attempt to narrate books with foreign language references...

This book can make you love Math!

I bought this book on one of those neat little "get a book for 4.95" windows that happily pop up now and then when you have bought something else. I didn't have high hopes for it but for 4.95 I thought "what the heck?"

After listening to it, I would have gladly paid full price. This book explains randomness and some mathematical concepts in such easy to listen to terms that you find yourself listening to it many times just to remind yourself of some of the cool things this book tells you.

My advice is buy it, and then bookmark every place you hear something you might want to refer back to and label it. I am in no way a math geek, but I love this book.