Against the gods
The Remarkable Story of Risk
by Peter L. Bernstein · first published 1996
78% recommend17% neutral6% critical
Why HN recommends it
Accessible intellectual history of probability, statistics and risk, showing how quantifying uncertainty shaped finance, insurance and markets; suits anyone curious about risk, including tech readers new to finance.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
History of Probability, Statistics and Risk Management presented in a clear and comprehensible way.
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…book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. How Buildings Learn by Stewart Brand. Founders at Work by Jessica Livingston. Tipping Point by Malcom Gladwell. Freakonomics, by Levitt and Dubner. Against the Gods by Peter Bernstein. The art of war by Sun Tzu. The 33 Strategies of War by Robert Greene. The Design of Everyday Things (formerly The Psychology of Everyday Things) by Donald Norman. Many HN readers…
on “Ask HN: Books That Gratify One's Intellectual Curiosity?” ↗…Wreckage on Wall Street _________ (2010) Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine STATISTICS Ayres, Ian (2007) Super Crunchers: Why Thinking by Numbers is the New Way to Be Smart Bernstein, Peter (1996) Against the Gods: Remarkable Story of Risk Kahneman, Daniel (2011) Thinking, Fast and Slow Silver, Nate (2012) Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail, but Some Don't Taleb, Nassim Nicholas (2005) Fooled…
on “Ask HN: What are the must-read books about economics/finance?” ↗Ah, Flexport PR again. The classic work on the history of marine insurance is "Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk" by Bernstein. This is heavily oriented towards Lloyds of London. It doesn't trace insurance back to the Romans. Plowing through the reference to Temin[1], there's a long…
on “How Maritime Insurance Helped Build Ancient Rome” ↗If you're into risk, then an awesome book is Against the Gods, by Peter Bernstein.
on “How 12th-century Genoese merchants invented the idea of risk” ↗Big ups for Bernstein, Against The Gods was a fantastic read and I can’t wait to read Power of Gold. Another book I’d like to throw into the mix here: Central Banking 101 [0] Fantastic overview of how the current central banking system works,…
on “What is money, anyway?” ↗Against the Gods by Peter Bernstein. At worst, a good background education on the history of probabilistic thought. At best, could fundamentally alter your world view.
on “What books would you recommend reading? Why?” ↗…Neuroeconomics Can Help Make You Rich - by Jason Zweig # Rational Investing in Irrational Times: How to Avoid the Costly Mistakes Even Smart People Make Today - by Larry Swedroe Financial History # Against the Gods and Capital Ideas - by Peter L. Bernstein # Devil Take the Hindmost: A History of Financial Speculation - by Edward Chancellor # A Random Walk Down Wall Street - by Burton Malkiel Like others here…
on “Ask HN: Best books/source to learn about investing?” ↗Ha! Just this morning I was reading about the development of probability theory and risk management in "Against the Gods" by Peter Bernstein [1]. I just finished the chapter on the Bernoullis contributions. Interesting read! [1] http://www.amazon.com/Against-Gods-Remarkable-Story-Risk/dp/...
on “Bernoulli: Exposition of a New Theory on the Measurement of Risk (1738) [pdf]” ↗Thorstein Veblen? Also, may be off center or not, but, Peter Bernstein "Against the Gods".
on “Ask HN: What are the must-read books about economics/finance?” ↗…Ian (2007) Super Crunchers: Why Thinking by Numbers is the New Way to Be Smart [Good introductory summary of the main concepts in statistics with many real-world examples] 2. Bernstein, Peter (1996) Against the Gods: Remarkable Story of Risk [Intellectual history of statistics, accessible to beginning students.] 3. Healey, Joseph (2005) Statistics: A Tool for Social Research, 7E [This is the text book that was…
on “Recommended Self-Study Path for Statistics” ↗Against the Gods by Peter L Bernstein, Chaos by James Gleick, and The (Mis)Behaviour of Markets by Benoit B Mandelbrot and Richard L Hudson.
on “Ask HN: What are your favorite statistics and probability textbooks?” ↗…being shipped. The Dutch became known as "Herring-tamers". The Dutch also innovated in cost accounting, to make sure the low-risk low-margin operations were profitable. Covered on HN at [1]. Related: "Against the Gods, the remarkable story of risk" (1998, Bernstein).[2] That, too, is a history of marine insurance, but covers more of the Lloyds of London view. That book is clearer on the role of insurance in making…
on “Dissertation: Marine Insurance in the Netherlands 1600-1870 (2009) [pdf]” ↗…Sapiens that I hadn't already encountered in another book (sometimes written a decade or more earlier). I would recommend The Great Human Diasporas by Cavalli-Sforza, Ancestor's Tale by Dawkins, and Against the Gods by Bernstein to tickle similar parts of your brain.
on “By eating them, hyenas gathered 9 Neanderthal skeletons in one cave” ↗…anything written by Nassim Taleb. Both of his main stream books are good ("Fooled by Randomness" and "The Black Swan"). Black Swan is more general while Fooled slants towards finance. Peter Bernstein's "Against the Gods" about the history of risk is also great and a little less wordy than Talebs.
on “Buying Tomorrow” ↗There is a great book out there called ' Against the Gods ' by Peter Bernstein. http://www.amazon.com/Against-Gods-Remarkable-Story-Risk/dp/... It has the fantastic story of how a lot of mathematical computations are a product of the effort to quantify risk.
on “Bernoulli discovered e by studying a question about compound interest” ↗