12/17/2009

Review of The Two Headed Quarter: How to See Through Deceptive Numbers and Save Money on Everything You Buy (Hardcover)

I was considering the purchase of this book so I used the "search inside" to try and find out whether it would be worth my time reading it. In the "read an excerpt" the author described how he and his wife had gone to a wholesale club to receive a "free" gift. People who know anything about how the world works would not do this. Someone should have mentioned to the author that there are no free lunches. So that was a bad start. Then I used the "surprise me" and read the following "Take baccarat for example. For every dollar bet the casino wins on average $1.0136 if the bet is on the player and $1.0117 if the bet is on the banker." Obviously the casino cannot win MORE than you bet. He meant $.0136 and $.0117 but it shows imprecise thinking and sloppy editing. The reason I was aware of this book was because amazon sent me an email about it because I had bought "Fooled by Randomness" and "The Black Swan" by Nassim Taleb, two books I would hardily recommend. Possibly after this review we may not get the search inside feature on as many new books which would be a shame. I reluctantly wrote this review because I have greatly benefited from reviews I have read by other amazon customers.



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