Get Free Shipping on orders over $89
The Random Factor : How Chance and Luck Profoundly Shape Our Lives and the World around Us - Mark Robert Rank

The Random Factor

How Chance and Luck Profoundly Shape Our Lives and the World around Us

By: Mark Robert Rank

Hardcover | 31 May 2024 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

Hardcover


RRP $45.95

$39.99

13%OFF

or 4 interest-free payments of $10.00 with

 or 

Ships in 5 to 7 business days

A poverty expert reveals how truly random the world isâ"including how economic inequality is experiencedâ"and how we can learn to acknowledge chance and appreciate it.

It's comforting to think that we can be successful because we work hard, climb ladders, and get what we deserve, but each of us has been profoundly touched by randomness. Chance is shown to play a crucial role in shaping outcomes across history, throughout the natural world, and in our everyday lives. In The Random Factor, Mark Robert Rank draws from a wealth of evidence, including interviews and research, to explain how luck and chance play out and reveals how we can use these lessons to guide our personal lives and public policies.

The Random Factor traverses luck from macro to micro, from events like the Cuban Missile Crisis to our personal encounters and relationships. From his perspective as a scholar of poverty, Rank also delves into the class and race dynamics of chance, emphasizing the stark disparities it brings to light. This transformative book prompts a new understanding of the twists and turns in our daily lives and encourages readers to fully appreciate the surprising world of randomness in which we live.

Industry Reviews
"Much of the power of the book comes from Rank's discussion of 'chance and luck' operating at a far more mundane level in the lives of ordinary people. Rank makes a strong case, in particular, that whether a person winds up in poverty is largely the result of factors outside their control." * Jacobin *

More in Popular Science

Nature's Last Dance : Tales of wonder in an age of extinction - Natalie Kyriacou
The Age Code : The New Science of Food and How It Can Save Us - David Cox
Thing Explainer : Complicated Stuff in Simple Words - Randall Munroe
How To Change Your Mind : New Science of Psychedelics - Michael Pollan
Humble Pi : A Comedy of Maths Errors - Matt Parker

RRP $26.99

$21.75

19%
OFF
Swainston's Fishes of Australia : The complete illustrated guide - Roger Swainston
How We Learn : The New Science of Education and the Brain - Stanislas Dehaene
Ferment : The Life-Changing Power of Microbes - Tim Spector

RRP $36.99

$29.75

20%
OFF
Behave : The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst - Robert M Sapolsky
Sapiens : A Graphic History: Volume 1 - Yuval Noah Harari

RRP $39.99

$31.75

21%
OFF
A Short History of Nearly Everything 2.0 - Bill Bryson

RRP $36.99

$29.75

20%
OFF
Breath : The New Science of a Lost Art - James Nestor

RRP $26.99

$20.75

23%
OFF