Book
Fluke : chance, chaos, and why everything we do matters / Brian Klaas.
In the perspective-altering tradition of Malcolm Gladwell's 'The Tipping Point' and Nassim Nicholas Taleb's 'The Black Swan', 'Fluke' is a provocative challenge to how we think our world works-and why small, chance events can divert our lives and change everything. Drawing on social science, chaos theory, history, evolutionary biology, and philosophy, Brian Klaas provides a brilliantly fresh look at why things happen-all while providing mind-bending lessons on how we can live smarter, be happier, and lead more fulfilling lives.
Record details
- ISBN: 9781668006528 (hardcover)
- Physical Description: ix, 323 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
- Edition: First Scribner hardcover edition.
- Publisher: New York : Scribner, 2024.
Content descriptions
| Formatted Contents Note: | Introduction -- Changing anything changes everything -- Everything doesn't happen for a reason -- Why our brains distort reality -- The human swarm -- Heraclitus rules -- The storytelling animal -- The lottery of earth -- Everyone's a butterfly -- Of clocks and calendars -- The emperor's new equations -- Could it be otherwise? -- Why everything we do matters. |
Search for related items by subject
| Subject: | Chance > Social aspects. Chaotic behavior in systems. Conduct of life. Forecasting. Forecasting > Psychological aspects. |
Available copies
- 0 of 1 copy available at Tsuga Consortium.
Holds
- 0 current holds with 1 total copy.
Show Only Available Copies
| Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Status | Due Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stroud Branch | 123.3 Kla | 31681010357762 | NONFIC | Checked out | 05/09/2025 |
- Baker & Taylor
A social scientist dispels peopleâs tidy versions of reality and delves deeply into the theories of random chance and chaos to demonstrate that the world really works through random events that can alter the trajectory of our lives. Illustrations. - Baker & Taylor
A social scientist dispels people's tidy versions of reality and delves deeply into the theories of random chance and chaos to demonstrate that the world really works through random events that can alter the trajectory of our lives. - Simon and Schuster
This âcaptivating illustration of the follies of trying to model and forecast the unpredictable worldâ (Financial Times) is both âempoweringâ (The New Statesman, UK) and âcompellingâ (New Scientist) as it challenges our most fundamental assumptionsâby social scientist and Atlantic writer Brian Klaas, whom Prospect magazine has named one of the worldâs âTop 25 Thinkers.â
If you could rewind your life to the very beginning and then press play, would everything turn out the same? Or could making an accidental phone call or missing an exit off the highway change not just your life, but history itself?
In Fluke, myth-shattering social scientist Brian Klaas takes a deep-dive into the phenomenon of random chance and the chaos it can sow, taking aim at most peopleâs neat and tidy version of reality. The bookâs argument is that we willfully ignore a bewildering truth: but for a few small changes, our livesâand our societiesâcould be radically different.
Offering an entirely new lens, Fluke explores how our world really works, driven by strange interactions and apparently random events. How did one coupleâs vacation cause 100,000 people to die? Does our decision to hit the snooze button in the morning radically alter the trajectory of our lives? And has the evolution of humans been inevitable, or are we simply the product of a series of freak accidents?
Drawing on social science, chaos theory, history, evolutionary biology, and philosophy, Klaas provides a brilliantly fresh look at why things happenâall while providing mind-bending lessons on how we can live smarter, be happier, and lead more fulfilling lives.
