Charles park

This book is proof that not everything matters.

Reviewed: 07-25-24

Fluke is a patchwork of popular factoids, interviews of scientists and science articles lifted from popular media. Perhaps it's because Brian Klaas is a political scientist and not a physical scientist that it reads like a politician dancing around a topic that they don't want to answer, and leaves you wondering if, in the end, anything was really said.

I found it very frustrating because there are serious studies of Complexity, Statistics, Behavioral Economics and Decision theory, etc. but FLUKE is a constantly shifting landscape of contradictions, misinterpretations and tautologies. He believes in chance, then he doesn't, but somehow its different from "luck", "random" and "accident" which he seems to use interchangeably. He coins terms like "convergent" or "divergent" which he uses to divide the world into two distinct outcomes, but then writes page after page of qualifications and exceptions that make it a distinction without a difference. Quantum physics is supposed to be this magical realm of totally random and unpredictable events, which lacks any appreciation of how statistics and probability work, or how its predictability is precisely why it has so many practical applications.

Fluke suffers from the same sort of rhetorical slight of hand that Jordan Peterson blathers on about. It indulges in scientific, moral, philosophical and literary arguments all at the same time, and when you try to nail down any point in particular, he side steps the issue by leaping from one discipline to the other; re-framing the question to suit his purposes.

I honestly wanted this to be a good book. I like Brian Klaas. but you'd be better off subscribing to a science podcast.

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a great follow up for multitdes

Reviewed: 08-17-22

full of amazing facts, but not so technically opaque to make it hard to read and understand. I gave it four for overall bc ratings filters exclude ppl who give too many perfect scores.

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If Epicurus were interviewed on The View.

Reviewed: 10-01-21

Epicurean communes lasted for centuries and had more than 400k people from spain to palestine. They were involved in all parts of european history from Alexander the great to Saint Augustine. There were thousands of lively debates, popular pieces of literature and plays about them, but almost all traces of them vanished by the 5th century ce. None of that is in this book.

This is not what i was looking for, which was a book about how Epicurean philosophy is relevant today, or at least how it is applied to dealing modern life. It is more a self help book. It does outline Epicurus and Lucretius, but it is very light on examples from their lives, surviving works, or the centuries long history of their followers and how they endured and dealt with everyday problems maintaining a community in the face of sometimes ardent opposition and bad publicity. It is, however, full of what the author believes and thinks we should do to be happy, which is fine. But her ideas are not in anyway novel: consumerism is evil, focus on relationships not career, get back to nature, meditate, diet and exercise. There are countless self help books with the same message. I don't need 8 hours to hear that.

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honest and informative

Reviewed: 05-21-21

you cant read minds, but you can ask the right questions. words to live by.

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Self indulgent, slow and hackneyed info-tainment.

Reviewed: 04-10-15

Any additional comments?

Because Berlininsky can't be troubled to come up with original metaphors from one book to another, I feel no reservation at all to copy and paiste this review from another book of his. They seem to fit all of his works very well

As if David Berlinski hid 6 pages of information at random intervals within a thesaurus, "The advent of the algorithm" closely resembles a sophomore's expository writing assignment that desperately pads his under researched book with monotone landscapes and irrelevant details, in what only can be described as a half hearted attempt to fill the required number of pages.

Every chapter is a tedious forest of recycled clichés and tired metaphors lifted directly from his other books. Lacking all restraint, he launches himself shamelessly into excruciatingly long accounts of the furniture, the shape and size of professor's heads, the bridges in Prague, the gestures and emotions of people not present to hear his arguments, and the smells that may or may not have filled the rooms of various historical figures. "They shine like diamonds on a jeweler's black velvet cloth" to quote Berlinski from both "A Tour of Calculus" and "The Advent of the Algorithm"

I blame both the author and the editor for this extravagant waist of print space and my time.

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8 people found this helpful

Ponderous, Meandering and Verbose.

Reviewed: 04-10-15

What could have made this a 4 or 5-star listening experience for you?

A book that covered the topic of Calculus.

Any additional comments?

As if David Berlinski hid 6 pages of information at random intervals within a thesaurus, "a tour of calculus" closely resembles a sophomore's expository writing assignment that desperately pads his under researched book with monotone landscapes and irrelevant details, in what only can be described as a half hearted attempt to fill the required number of pages.

Every chapter is a tedious forest of recycled clichés and tired metaphors lifted directly from his other books. Lacking all restraint, he launches himself shamelessly into excruciatingly long accounts of the furniture, the shape and size of professor's heads, the bridges in Prague, the gestures and emotions of people not present to hear his arguments, and the smells that may or may not have filled the rooms of various historical figures. "They shine like diamonds on a jeweler's black velvet cloth" to quote Berlinski from both "A Tour of Calculus" and "The Advent of the Algorithm"

I blame both the author and the editor for this extravagant waist of print space and my time.

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22 people found this helpful

A little less than an intro class

Reviewed: 11-10-14

What disappointed you about Demonology?

It lacked cross cultural perspective. Demons are a global phenomenon, but this is more a Catholic bibliography than theological or anthropological study.

What do you think your next listen will be?

Nate Silver's signal and the noise.

What aspect of Torry Clark’s performance would you have changed?

The narrator mispronounced several words.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Disappointment.

Any additional comments?

More data than information, it was akin to a freshman paper.

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1 person found this helpful

A clash of kinks: complication to no end

Reviewed: 12-24-13

What would have made A Clash of Kings better?

A plot that actually leads the reader somewhere.

Has A Clash of Kings turned you off from other books in this genre?

No

Which scene was your favorite?

Valar morghulis. Mysterious now, but when you learn what it means you'll wunder why you fell for such an obviuos ploy to keep you buying books.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Anger. Martin is a sadist, making you love someone, torturing them, then making them disappear or die.

Any additional comments?

O.K., so you ignored my warning about this series of cheap hooks, cliff hangers and gimmicks designed to keep you reading until the end of time. This is the high watermark of the series, in that you have invested yourself in characters you like and there aren't more developed plots than you can follow. You are being set up. Everyone and everything you love will be taken away and replaced by excruciating blather about court gossip, clothes and historical trivia in this alternate reality. Martin is a cheat. No plot line will pay off and it will only leave you frustrated.

See the south park parody of Martin; it is spot on.

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1 person found this helpful

This song keeps Dragon on and on.

Reviewed: 12-09-13

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

Teenagers interested in rough trade porn.

Has A Game of Thrones turned you off from other books in this genre?

no

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

the voices change in book 3. You'd think Roy Dotrice would have thought to review his notes before he made everyone scottish.

What character would you cut from A Game of Thrones?

George R. R. Martin

Any additional comments?

I felt abused!

Cheap gimmicks, cliff hangers and hooks that never, ever payoff; I quit reading in the fifth book with 8 plot lines, 2doz. main characters, maybe 3x as many minor characters & no hope of tying up all the loose ends short of an asteroid strike. Whenever something interesting develops, Martin abandons it for 50 chapters or jumps to action on another continent.

Meandering, tedious and lacking any unity, these books are 4000 pages dedicated to horney teenagers interested in the rough trade porn that happens every 5th chapter where a woman is stripped, beaten, humiliated and/or raped in excruciatingly lurid detail. Aside from misogyny, Martin also has a pathological fascination with purilance, crusty wounds, feces and bodily fluids of all types. AND STILL NO DRAGONS! I felt sick when I heard two additional books are in the works, each with an estimated 1800 pages. Do not attempt these books without plenty of hand sanitizer.

DO NOT EVEN START THESE BOOKS. GET OUT WHILE YOU CAN!

PS South Park, Black Friday episode is an accurate portrayal of Martin.

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If Homer and Olive Oil make you think of cartoons

Reviewed: 03-25-04

....then this is probably not the book for you.

But for the serious student of any of the liberal arts( philosophy, politics, history, literature, sociology, fine arts, ect.) this is a must read. Another of his series of histories, Cahill has an encyclopedic grasp of the evolution of modern western society. Lively and at times risque, he gives a persuasive arguement for the study of the classics.

It's a good read.

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7 people found this helpful