This work has shaken Wall Street thanks to its contention that much of what people perceive as skill playing the markets is often nothing more than luck.

Originally published: New York : Thomson/Texere, 2004.

Prologue -- Part I. Solon's Warning--Skewness, Asymmetry, Induction : If you're so rich, why aren't you so smart? -- A bizarre accounting method -- A mathematical mediation on history -- Randomness, nonsense, and the scientific intellectual -- Survival of the least fit : can evolution be fooled by randomness? -- Skewness and asymmetry -- The problem of induction ; Part II. Monkeys on Typewriters--Survivorship and Other Biases : Too many millionaires next door -- It is easier to buy and sell than fry an egg -- Loser takes all--on the nonlinearities of life -- Randomness and our mind : we are probability blind ; Part III. Wax in My Ears--Living with randomitis : Gamblers' ticks and pigeons in a box -- Carneades comes to Rome : on probability and skepticism -- Bacchus abandons Antony -- Solon told you so -- Three afterthoughts in the shower.