ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I ASSUME if you are reading this far, that you liked this book. For its good qualities, I’d like to claim all credit, but as Nixon once said, that would be wrong. And so I’d like to point out the people who, with their time, knowledge, talent, and/or patience, helped me to create a book that is better than any which I could have created alone. First, Donna Scott, Mark Hillery, and Matt Costello gave me constant encouragement. Mark, in particular, wanted me to write a book about entropy, but then listened (and read) patiently as I instead applied many of those same ideas to the everyday world. My agent, Susan Ginsburg, never wanted me to write a book about entropy, but, like Mark, was a source of unwaivering constructive input and encouragement. My friend Judith Croasdell was always supportive, and, when called upon, also worked a miracle or two. And my editor, Edward Kastenmeier, never grew tired of the long discussions I drew him into about the style and content of virtually every sentence, or more likely, was too polite to complain about it. I also owe a debt to Edward’s colleagues, Marty Asher, Dan Frank, and Tim O’Connell, who, along with Edward, nurtured this work and helped shape the text and to Janice Goldklang, Michiko Clark, Chris Gillespie, Keith Goldsmith, James Kimball, and Vannessa Schneider whose tireless efforts helped get this to you.

On the technical side, Larry Goldstein and Ted Hill inspired me in numerous fun and exciting mathematical debates and discussions, and gave me invaluable feedback on the manuscript. Fred Rose seemed to have left his job at The Wall Street Journal solely to free up time to lend me advice on the workings of the financial markets. Lyle Long applied his considerable expertise at data analysis to help create the graphs related to fund manager performance. And Christof Koch welcomed me into his lab at Caltech and opened my eyes to the exciting new developments in neuroscience that pepper these pages. Many other friends and colleagues read chapters, sometimes more than one draft, or otherwise provided useful suggestions or information. They include Jed Buchwald, Lynne Cox, Richard Cheverton, Rebecca Forster, Miriam Goodman, Catherine Keefe, Jeff Mackowiak, Cindy Mayer, Patricia McFall, Andy Meisler, Steve Mlodinow, Phil Reed, Seth Roberts, Laura Saari, Matt Salganik, Martin Smith, Steve Thomas, Diane Turner, and Jerry Webman. Thanks to you all. Finally, I owe a profound thank you to my family, Donna, Alexei, Nicolai, Olivia, and to my mother, Irene, from each of whom I often stole time in order that I might improve upon, or at least obsess over, this work.