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Title: Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk
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Manufacturer: Wiley
List Price: $19.95
Our Price: $10.99
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| Customer Reviews: |
| Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk by Wiley A must | | This book is an abolute must for whoever uses the word RISK in reflexion, work, publication or lecture. | | Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk by Wiley Story versus Thesis | The topic is interesting, but the minutiae of the story makes it difficult to stay engaged, and as such, reads more like a very dry thesis. So, the phrase: "Story of Risk" might sell books, but it does not accurately address this book. I did not feel engaged throughout the reading of this work, and this belies the problem with the asymmetry of title and book.
However, for academics and teachers, the book does give detail which may be used to "spice up" lectures. This may prove to be its number one utility.
My own barometer of whether a book is truly five stars is measured by its life on my bookshelf. I have a finite sized bookshelf, and yet the number of books being published is something for which an end of publication is difficult to see. As my attention was drawn to this book again, after seeking out other "Black Swan" books, I can tell you that my hardcover is looking for a different venue for its life time on my bookshelf is now in question. | | Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk by Wiley Investments | This book was a gift for the man interested in investments!
He loves it! | | Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk by Wiley Dry and Unfulfilling, Except Chapter 16 | This book was recommended to me because I'm interested in getting an MBA eventually. I don't see what the fuss was about.
It's a long dry series of history interjection separated by basic probabilities and a few simplified algorithms. I took math courses in college, and this book came off as simplistic.
It goes over the history of risk from approximately ancient Greece up to 1950. It isn't going to help you in your own business dealings. The concept of punctuated equilibrium bursting artificial market bubbles and rewriting the rules of risk isn't even mentioned. Chaos theory gets one paragraph at the end of the novel. This made the book largely useless.
The only good about the book (to me) was chapter 16, titled 'The Failure of Invariance' (inconsistent choices for the same problem framed in different ways) which explains Prospect Theory. Distilled it means emotions destroy rational decision making, and people often don't understand what they are dealing with. Basically 'we use shortcuts that lead us to erroneous perceptions, or we interpret small samples as representative of what larger samples would show' (overgeneralization, p271). We interpret gains and losses (chance of losing means we gamble more) differently, and overvalue dramatic components, ignoring the data from other sources. It means we misjudge risk because we don't understand the situation well enough. It is applied fuzzy thinking strained through ego. This chapter made me investigate the research of Kahneman and Tversky, and I found it the [only] worthwhile portion of this book. | | Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk by Wiley Great Book on Risk | Risk is a topic central to many facets of everyday life. Peter Bernstein offers a compelling and readable historical overview of the evolving role of risk in everyday life combined with thoughts on the future of risk in our changing world.
Well-documented and interesting, this is a key book for those who are interested in contextualizing risk. After reading this book, you may well see risk in a new and different way. | | Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk by Wiley Product Description | A Business Week, New York Times Business, and USA Today Bestseller
"Ambitious and readable . . . an engaging introduction to the oddsmakers, whom Bernstein regards as true humanists helping to release mankind from the choke holds of superstition and fatalism." -The New York Times
"An extraordinarily entertaining and informative book." -The Wall Street Journal
"A lively panoramic book . . . Against the Gods sets up an ambitious premise and then delivers on it." -Business Week
"Deserves to be, and surely will be, widely read." -The Economist
"[A] challenging book, one that may change forever the way people think about the world." -Worth
"No one else could have written a book of such central importance with so much charm and excitement." -Robert Heilbroner author, The Worldly Philosophers
"With his wonderful knowledge of the history and current manifestations of risk, Peter Bernstein brings us Against the Gods. Nothing like it will come out of the financial world this year or ever. I speak carefully: no one should miss it." -John Kenneth Galbraith Professor of Economics Emeritus, Harvard University
In this unique exploration of the role of risk in our society, Peter Bernstein argues that the notion of bringing risk under control is one of the central ideas that distinguishes modern times from the distant past. Against the Gods chronicles the remarkable intellectual adventure that liberated humanity from oracles and soothsayers by means of the powerful tools of risk management that are available to us today.
"An extremely readable history of risk." -Barron's
"Fascinating . . . this challenging volume will help you understand the uncertainties that every investor must face." -Money
"A singular achievement." -Times Literary Supplement
"There's a growing market for savants who can render the recondite intelligibly-witness Stephen Jay Gould (natural history), Oliver Sacks (disease), Richard Dawkins (heredity), James Gleick (physics), Paul Krugman (economics)-and Bernstein would mingle well in their company." -The Australian | | Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk by Wiley Amazon.com | | With the stock market breaking records almost daily, leaving longtime market analysts shaking their heads and revising their forecasts, a study of the concept of risk seems quite timely. Peter Bernstein has written a comprehensive history of man's efforts to understand risk and probability, beginning with early gamblers in ancient Greece, continuing through the 17th-century French mathematicians Pascal and Fermat and up to modern chaos theory. Along the way he demonstrates that understanding risk underlies everything from game theory to bridge-building to winemaking. |
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