"Against the Gods"

[fiefoe]

I'm having a hard time getting over this remarkably clever title. Peter L. Bernstein argues in this book that risk management is one of the central ideas that brought us out of the Dark Ages. In his words, 'risk is a choice rather than a fate.'

The first 4 chapters trot out the usual suspects: Pascal, Fermat, Leibniz, Diophantus. Cardano, a Milano physician who wrote Ars Magna, is perhaps the only fresh face.

Tidbits:

• The Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius was regularly accompanied by his personal croupier.
  
• Calculus is the Latin word for pebble; algorithm is named after an Arabic mathematician, al-Khowarizmi.
  
• Fibonacci means "blockhead".
  
• In 1200s, Florence forbade bankers from using the "infidel" symbols, so people had to disguise themselves as Muslims in order to learn the new numeric system.
  
• A merchant of "notions" dealt in buttons and needles.