William Poundstone is the bestselling author of several nonfiction books, including Labyrinths of Reason and The Recursive Universe.
"Seldom have true crime and smart math been blended together so engagingly." --The Wall Street Journal "An amazing story that gives a big idea the needed star treatment . . . Fortune's Formula will appeal to readers of such books as Peter L. Bernstein's Against the Gods, Nassim Nicholas Taleb's Fooled by Randomness, and Roger Lowenstein's When Genius Failed. All try to explain why smart people take stupid risks. Poundstone goes them one better by showing how hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management, for one, could have avoided disaster by following the Kelly method." --Business Week (four stars) "'Fortune's Formula' may be the world's first history book, gambling primer, mathematics text, economics manual, personal finance guide and joke book in a single volume. Poundstone comes across as the best college professor you ever hand, someone who can turn almost any technical topic into an entertaining and zesty lecture." --The New York Times Book Review
In 1956, Bell Labs scientists Claude Shannon and John L. Kelly Jr. used their considerable smarts to devise a formula for getting rich and applied it to gambling at its height: Las Vegas roulette and the stock market. Poundstone examines the consequences-and the seamy underside. Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
"Seldom have true crime and smart math been blended together so engagingly." --The Wall Street Journal "An amazing story that gives a big idea the needed star treatment . . . Fortune's Formula will appeal to readers of such books as Peter L. Bernstein's Against the Gods, Nassim Nicholas Taleb's Fooled by Randomness, and Roger Lowenstein's When Genius Failed. All try to explain why smart people take stupid risks. Poundstone goes them one better by showing how hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management, for one, could have avoided disaster by following the Kelly method." --Business Week (four stars) "'Fortune's Formula' may be the world's first history book, gambling primer, mathematics text, economics manual, personal finance guide and joke book in a single volume. Poundstone comes across as the best college professor you ever hand, someone who can turn almost any technical topic into an entertaining and zesty lecture." --The New York Times Book Review
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