Probability Demystified by Allan Bluman
Book 28 of 52 for 2011
This was an entirely practical read – and one I wish was mandatory for anyone who has ever said: “What are the odds of that happening?” before expounding at great length on how 9/11, the moon landings, aircraft contrails and flouride in the water supply are all massive government conspiracies.
A large-scale cause of cognitive dissonance seems to be when people try to explain the inexplicable to themselves by claiming something was simply too bizarre to have truly been a coincidence, or otherwise mangling the laws of probablility to suit their particular view of the world. In a milieu where this happens frequently, for example the Internet, it’s very valuable to have a working understanding of how probability actually functions so as to equip yourself with a means of judging the credibility of various ideas you may encounter. It doesn’t hurt if you’re keen on sports betting either – two reasons why this fairly jumped off the library shelf and into my arms.
Additionally, I’m a mathematical dunce, and have a brain that struggles to embrace even basic mathematical concepts. I do not like this, but have learned over time to accept it, in the way that a left-handed person is flogging a dead horse by repeatedly trying to improve their handwriting by using their right hand. Therefore I need any book dealing with an area of mathematics to be explained in the numeric equivalent of words of one syllable, which this thankfully is. I got very deep into it, most of the way through in fact, before getting lost and felt I had definitely achieved my aim by reading it (or working through it, at least in the chapters where that was still possible).
I’m a great believer in expanding those horizons that are not natural candidates to be expanded, which I managed to do with Professor Bluman’s help. This book seems ideal if you’d like to do the same.
Tags: mathematics, non-fiction, textbooks