50 William Poundstone - Understanding Randomness

Inquiring Minds

Science, Society & Culture, Neuroscience, Female Host, Interview, Social Sciences, Critical Thinking

4.4 • 848 Ratings

🗓️ 5 September 2014

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On the show this week we talk about randomness with science writer William Poundstone, author of the new book Rock Breaks Scissors.Poundstone explains why we’re so terrible at trying to come up with random sequences ourselves—and how understanding these pitfalls can actually help you predict, with accuracy above chance, what someone else is going to do even when he or she is trying, purposefully, to act randomly.These predictions are at the core of Poundstone's book, which offers a practical guide to outguessing and outwitting almost anybody—in activities ranging from Rock, Paper, Scissors (men tend to go with rock, so you can beat them with paper) to investing in stocks.On the show this week we also talk about researchers who are growing mushrooms on diapers to help them biodegrade and Chris disagrees with Neil deGrasse Tyson about something (but still loves him).iTunes: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/inquiring-minds/id711675943RSS: feeds.feedburner.com/inquiring-mindsStitcher: stitcher.com/podcast/inquiring-mindsSupport the show: https://www.patreon.com/inquiringminds

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's Friday, September 5th, and you're listening to Inquiring Minds.
0:05.4	I'm Chris Mooney.
0:06.3	And I'm Indravis Gontas.
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1:00.9	specific URL to get it. Audiblepodcast.com slash inquiring minds. Once again, that's
1:06.5	audiblepodcast.com slash inquiring minds. This week I interviewed William Poundstone.
1:13.2	He's a Pulitzer Prize nominated science writer, and he's the author of 13 books, including
1:18.3	Are You Smart Enough to Work at Google?
1:20.7	And most recently, a book called Rock Breaks Scissors, a practical guide to outguessing
1:25.5	and outwitting almost everybody. And if you've been a fan
1:29.0	of the Cosmo series, he also has a biography out of Carl Sagan. And just a tidbit for you, he is the
	...

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