The Story of Chance: Beyond the Margin of Error Paperback – February 25, 2025

Why does a lucky lottery winner need unlucky losers? Can an octopus pick winners of football games? What’s the Karaoke strategy? How can you tell whether a fortune teller has psychic powers or is just lucky? Was Humpty Dumpty accident prone? What is the “margin of error” in opinion polls? How do you tell the difference between luck and skill? What’s resemblance stereotyping? How did the former crypto king con himself? What’s the Rashomon effect? How is it possible that a TV pundit has predicted every stock market crash for the past thirty years? Dr. Mike Orkin answers these questions and more. As a professor, consultant, researcher, and author, Dr. Mike Orkin has a breadth of experience that gives him unique insight into issues involving chance and luck. Mike has a BA in Math and a PhD in Statistics from the University of California at Berkeley. He frequently consults in the gaming industry and has published numerous research papers on games and chance. He has given invited talks on these topics including a Google Tech Talk. Dr. Orkin is a professor of statistics emeritus at California State University, East Bay. He is currently on the math faculty at Berkeley City College.drmikeorkin.com   Read more