Rock Breaks Scissors

A Practical Guide to Outguessing and Outwitting Almost Everybody

Contributors

By William Poundstone

Formats and Prices

Price

$9.99

Price

$12.99 CAD

Format

Format:

  1. ebook $9.99 $12.99 CAD
  2. Trade Paperback $21.99 $28.99 CAD

This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around June 3, 2014. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.

A practical guide to outguessing everything, from multiple-choice tests to the office football pool to the stock market.

People are predictable even when they try not to be. William Poundstone demonstrates how to turn this fact to personal advantage in scores of everyday situations, from playing the lottery to buying a home. Rock Breaks Scissors is mind-reading for real life.

Will the next tennis serve go right or left? Will the market go up or down? Most people are poor at that kind of predicting. We are hard-wired to make bum bets on “trends” and “winning streaks” that are illusions. Yet ultimately we’re all in the business of anticipating the actions of others. Poundstone reveals how to overcome the errors and improve the accuracy of your own outguessing. Rock Breaks Scissors is a hands-on guide to turning life’s odds in your favor.

Genre:

  • "An ingenious guide to outsmarting others by predicting their choices when they are trying to be unpredictable." -- Kirkus (Starred Review)
  • Praise for Are You Smart Enough to Work at Google?

    "Delightful, fun, and worth a read." --Seth Godin
  • "Poundstone displays his scientific knowledge, mathematical fluency, and knack for explaining the arcane in playfully precise sentences." --Bloomberg Businessweek
  • "A smart, engagingly written account of how to capitalize on other peoples' predictability . . . clearly explained and easily accessible to the general reader. An enlightening book."
    Booklist
  • "Of all of the books I've received for The Post, none has received as much over-the-shoulder reads than ROCK BREAKS SCISSORS."
    Susannah Callahan, The New York Post

On Sale
Jun 3, 2014
Page Count
320 pages
Publisher
Little Brown Spark
ISBN-13
9780316228084

William Poundstone

About the Author

William Poundstone is the author of seventeen books, including Rock Breaks Scissors, Are You Smart Enough to Work at Google?, How Would You Move Mount Fuji?, and Fortune's Formula. He has written for the Believer, the Economist, Esquire, Harper's, Harvard Business Review, and the New York Times op-ed page and Book Review. Follow Poundstone on Twitter (@WPoundstone) and learn more at his website, home.williampoundstone.net

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