Moneyball
by Michael Lewis · 1 Jan 2003 · 316pp · 105,384 words
most runs, but the team with the highest batting average. It should be obvious that the purpose of an offense is not to compile a high batting average.” Because it was not obvious, at least to the people who ran baseball, James smelled a huge opportunity. How did runs score? “We can’t
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past few years there has been only one batter more useful to an offense: Barry Bonds. Giambi has all the crude offensive attributes—home runs, high batting average, a perennially high number of RBIs. He also has the subtler attributes. When he’s in the lineup, for instance, the opposing pitcher is forced
The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail-But Some Don't
by Nate Silver · 31 Aug 2012 · 829pp · 186,976 words
easy. Baseball, uniquely among the major American sports, has always been played on fields with nonstandard dimensions. It’s much easier to put up a high batting average in snug and boxy Fenway Park, whose contours are shaped by compact New England street grids, than in the cavernous environs of Dodger Stadium, which
Everything Is Obvious: *Once You Know the Answer
by Duncan J. Watts · 28 Mar 2011 · 327pp · 103,336 words
managers—and indeed fund managers with long streaks do tend to beat the S&P 500 more often than average, just like baseball players with high batting averages. By this measure, however, in a forty-year career a fund manager will get only forty “at-bats” total—simply not enough data to estimate
What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets
by Michael Sandel · 26 Apr 2012 · 231pp · 70,274 words
strategies that were at odds with conventional baseball wisdom. For example, they discovered that a high on-base percentage matters more to winning than a high batting average or slugging percentage. So they hired players who, though less celebrated than high-priced sluggers, drew a lot of walks. And despite the traditional view
The Cheating Culture: Why More Americans Are Doing Wrong to Get Ahead
by David Callahan · 1 Jan 2004 · 452pp · 110,488 words
, when it comes to getting into the right college, getting the right job, becoming a "hot" reporter, showing good earnings on Wall Street, having a high batting average, or otherwise becoming a star achiever. ♦ Higher inequality has led to more divisions between Americans and weakened the social fabric—undermining the notion that we
Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters
by Steven Pinker · 14 Oct 2021 · 533pp · 125,495 words
in sports, Joe DiMaggio’s hitting streak of fifty-six games in 1941. He explained that the streak was statistically extraordinary even given DiMaggio’s high batting average and the number of opportunities for streaks to have occurred in the history of the sport. The fact that DiMaggio benefited from some lucky breaks
Every Patient Tells a Story
by Lisa Sanders · 15 Jan 2009 · 314pp · 101,034 words
patient has to say in the making of a diagnosis. And yet this is crucial information. None of our high-tech tests has such a high batting average. Neither does the physical exam. Nor is there any other way to obtain this information. Talking to the patient more often than not provides the
Startup CEO: A Field Guide to Scaling Up Your Business, + Website
by Matt Blumberg · 13 Aug 2013 · 561pp · 114,843 words
our market opportunity and financial resources. It was hard and we made mistakes aplenty but using a baseball metaphor, we managed to “hit with a high batting average.” We were able to successfully navigate them by following many of the themes that Matt outlines below and our efforts were rewarded when we sold
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you will rarely know you have done it well or not so well, until after the fact. I believe your goal is to achieve that “high batting average” so your business will stay healthy enough to continue forward successfully. That’s the lesson I hope you take away from this section. Alan Masarek
Inside the House of Money: Top Hedge Fund Traders on Profiting in a Global Market
by Steven Drobny · 31 Mar 2006 · 385pp · 128,358 words
men. George Soros, on the other hand, is much more volatile than Stan and Nick. He is the opposite of Warren Buffett. Buffett has a high batting average. George has a terrible batting average—it’s below 50 percent and possibly even below 30 percent—but when he wins it’s a grand
The Evolution of God
by Robert Wright · 8 Jun 2009
to muster ongoing displays of supernatural power. But how could they do that, given the seeming falseness of their supernatural beliefs? In some realms, a high batting average is inherently likely. Among the Aranda of central Australia, one of the shaman’s jobs was ensuring that solar eclipses would be temporary—nice work
Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World
by General Stanley McChrystal, Tantum Collins, David Silverman and Chris Fussell · 11 May 2015 · 409pp · 105,551 words
Stealing Fire: How Silicon Valley, the Navy SEALs, and Maverick Scientists Are Revolutionizing the Way We Live and Work
by Steven Kotler and Jamie Wheal · 21 Feb 2017 · 407pp · 90,238 words