Peter L. Bernstein

Against the Gods

1. IDEA 1

   Mastering risk shaped the modern world

   Bernstein tells the history of how people learned to think about risk, from ancient games of chance to modern finance. He argues that understanding probability allowed humans to plan for the future instead of leaving everything to fate or the gods.

2. IDEA 2

   Gambling led to probability

   Bernstein describes how gambling games inspired early thinkers to study chance. Gerolamo Cardano wrote about the mathematics of dice. Cardano's work was an early step toward the idea that chance can be measured instead of left to fate.

3. IDEA 3

   Pascal and Fermat solved a puzzle

   Bernstein describes how Blaise Pascal and Pierre de Fermat worked out how to divide stakes in an unfinished game. Their letters founded probability theory. It showed that the future could be reasoned about with numbers.

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