William Poundstone Books
William Poundstone is an American author and science writer known for his works on psychology, economics, and game theory. His books, including 'Fortune's Formula' and 'Gaming the Vote', combine rigorous research with accessible storytelling to explain complex ideas in human decision-making and rationality.
Known for: Fortune’s Formula: The Untold Story of the Scientific Betting System That Beat the Casinos and Wall Street, Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value (and How to Take Advantage of It)
Books by William Poundstone
Fortune’s Formula: The Untold Story of the Scientific Betting System That Beat the Casinos and Wall Street
Fortune’s Formula explores the history and impact of the Kelly criterion, a mathematical formula for optimal betting and investment. William Poundstone traces its origins from the world of gambling to...
Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value (and How to Take Advantage of It)
In this book, William Poundstone explores the psychology behind pricing and value perception. Drawing on behavioral economics and cognitive science, he reveals how consumers are influenced by marketin...
Key Insights from William Poundstone
Claude Shannon and the Birth of Information Theory
The story begins at Bell Labs during one of the most fertile periods of innovation in modern science. Claude Shannon, a quiet but playful genius, was reimagining the very concept of communication. His landmark work, the 1948 paper “A Mathematical Theory of Communication,” defined information not by ...
From Fortune’s Formula: The Untold Story of the Scientific Betting System That Beat the Casinos and Wall Street
John Kelly and the Mathematics of Optimal Betting
John Kelly’s 1956 paper, “A New Interpretation of Information Rate,” published while he was at Bell Labs, was a turning point. He proposed a formula now known globally as the Kelly criterion. The idea was deceptively simple yet remarkably powerful: if you have an edge in a wager—some piece of genuin...
From Fortune’s Formula: The Untold Story of the Scientific Betting System That Beat the Casinos and Wall Street
From Haggling to Price Tags: The History of Our Illusion
The belief in 'fair value' has not always existed. Before price tags became standard, merchants and customers negotiated prices face to face. Those transactions were shaped by social hierarchy, urgency, and perception—a dance of information and emotion. Fixed prices emerged only in the nineteenth ce...
From Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value (and How to Take Advantage of It)
The Behavioral Economics Revolution: How We Really Value Things
Through decades of experiments, behavioral economists like Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky revealed that people rarely evaluate prices logically. Instead, we rely on cognitive heuristics. Experiments showing that slight changes in framing—a glass half full versus half empty—can alter decisions also...
From Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value (and How to Take Advantage of It)
About William Poundstone
William Poundstone is an American author and science writer known for his works on psychology, economics, and game theory. His books, including 'Fortune's Formula' and 'Gaming the Vote', combine rigorous research with accessible storytelling to explain complex ideas in human decision-making and rati...
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William Poundstone is an American author and science writer known for his works on psychology, economics, and game theory. His books, including 'Fortune's Formula' and 'Gaming the Vote', combine rigorous research with accessible storytelling to explain complex ideas in human decision-making and rati...
William Poundstone is an American author and science writer known for his works on psychology, economics, and game theory. His books, including 'Fortune's Formula' and 'Gaming the Vote', combine rigorous research with accessible storytelling to explain complex ideas in human decision-making and rationality.
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William Poundstone is an American author and science writer known for his works on psychology, economics, and game theory. His books, including 'Fortune's Formula' and 'Gaming the Vote', combine rigorous research with accessible storytelling to explain complex ideas in human decision-making and rationality.
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