{"id":461,"date":"2017-05-29T20:18:33","date_gmt":"2017-05-30T01:18:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/schlaff.com\/wp\/?p=461"},"modified":"2018-09-07T19:54:27","modified_gmt":"2018-09-07T23:54:27","slug":"edward-thorpe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/schlaff.com\/wp\/edward-thorpe\/","title":{"rendered":"A Man for All Markets by Edward Thorpe"},"content":{"rendered":"

I finished listening to A Man for All Markets<\/a>. It’s an amazing book on a number of fronts. \u00a0Here’s a few of the impressive bits:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. There’s a lot of people who write memoirs like this that seem a bit over the top. But Thorpe is a bit of an over the top genius generally credited with the creation of card counting in blackjack<\/a>, risk arbitrage and hedge funds<\/a>\u00a0and wearable computers<\/a>.<\/li>\n
  2. He might\u00a0have won the Nobel prize but decided on a different path. Thorpe had to decide whether to be a businessman or a professor first. When he published his book Beat the Market<\/a>\u00a0he showed how to correctly price options. Instead of pushing this further, Thorpe decided to trade on his findings. Eventually others published what became known as the Black Scholes model<\/a> for option pricing which eventually won the Nobel Prize..<\/li>\n
  3. Thorpe seems to have known everyone in finance, from Warren Buffett to Bernie Madoff (who he knew was a fraud decades ago). He even talks about how Buffett used to challenge people to a game of dice with non-transitive dice<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Overall I really loved the audiobook. Thorpe narrates the book himself and does a pretty darn good job. This is from an 85 year old man worth about $800 million<\/a>.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I finished listening to A Man for All Markets. It’s an amazing book on a number of fronts. \u00a0Here’s a few of the impressive bits: There’s a lot of people who write memoirs like this that seem a bit over the top. But Thorpe is a bit of an over the top genius generally credited […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books-audiobooks"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8wCkz-7r","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":463,"url":"https:\/\/schlaff.com\/wp\/nontransitive-dice\/","url_meta":{"origin":461,"position":0},"title":"Nontransitive Dice","author":"Robert Schlaff","date":"June 3, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"I\u2019d always thought of dice as being fair. Like flipping a coin, I\u2019d assumed that a throw of the dice was random. Then I learned about nontransitive dice and it blew my mind. Nontransistive dice are a set of dice that don\u2019t behave in the normal way. Even though each\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fun Stuff"","block_context":{"text":"Fun Stuff","link":"https:\/\/schlaff.com\/wp\/category\/fun-stuff\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/schlaff.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/dice_illustration-768x858-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/schlaff.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/dice_illustration-768x858-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/schlaff.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/dice_illustration-768x858-1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/schlaff.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/dice_illustration-768x858-1.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4874,"url":"https:\/\/schlaff.com\/wp\/book-report-deep-thinking-by-gary-kasparov\/","url_meta":{"origin":461,"position":1},"title":"Book Report: Deep Thinking by Gary Kasparov","author":"Robert Schlaff","date":"January 26, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Do you remember the legend of John Henry? John Henry was a steel driller in West Virginia or somewhere thereabouts in the late 1800s. He was the best there ever was. Then one day the railroad bought a big steam drill that they said could drill faster than any man.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Books \/ Audiobooks"","block_context":{"text":"Books \/ Audiobooks","link":"https:\/\/schlaff.com\/wp\/category\/books-audiobooks\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1039,"url":"https:\/\/schlaff.com\/wp\/as-you-wish-watching-the-princess-bride-with-kids\/","url_meta":{"origin":461,"position":2},"title":"As You Wish — Watching the Princess Bride With Kids","author":"Robert Schlaff","date":"July 23, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"I keep trying to find great movies to watch with my 8 and 5-year-old sons that are fun for all of us. The Princess Bride is one of the best. It's a great movie for adults and it even has Peter Falk as the narrator grandfather to keep the kids\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fun Stuff"","block_context":{"text":"Fun Stuff","link":"https:\/\/schlaff.com\/wp\/category\/fun-stuff\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":682,"url":"https:\/\/schlaff.com\/wp\/bad-consultant\/","url_meta":{"origin":461,"position":3},"title":"The Worst Consultant OR My Favorite Consulting Joke","author":"Robert Schlaff","date":"January 27, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"A man in a hot air balloon comes descending on a meadow where a shepherd is tending his flock. After he greets the man he asks him \u201cIf I tell you how many sheep you have without having to count them, will you give me one of them?\u201d The shepherd\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Fun Stuff"","block_context":{"text":"Fun Stuff","link":"https:\/\/schlaff.com\/wp\/category\/fun-stuff\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3579,"url":"https:\/\/schlaff.com\/wp\/the-joy-of-the-hunt\/","url_meta":{"origin":461,"position":4},"title":"The Joy of the Hunt","author":"Robert Schlaff","date":"July 9, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"I have officially become a Grumpy Old Man.((Try to read this piece in Dana Carvey's Grumpy Old Man voice.)) It\u2019s too easy for people to find things online. Back in my day, things were different. People should work hard to discover things. Kids today can just Google things online and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Adventures"","block_context":{"text":"Adventures","link":"https:\/\/schlaff.com\/wp\/category\/adventures\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/schlaff.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/IMG_0799-scaled.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/schlaff.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/IMG_0799-scaled.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/schlaff.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/IMG_0799-scaled.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/schlaff.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/IMG_0799-scaled.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/schlaff.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/IMG_0799-scaled.jpeg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/schlaff.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/IMG_0799-scaled.jpeg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8903,"url":"https:\/\/schlaff.com\/wp\/why-wrestle-with-words-let-chatgpt-show-its-magic\/","url_meta":{"origin":461,"position":5},"title":"Why Wrestle with Words? Let ChatGPT Show Its Magic","author":"Robert Schlaff","date":"February 11, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"This is a fun piece where I had ChatGPT showboat a bit. Hi, it's ChatGPT Plus. Watching humans deal with language is like watching someone juggle with one hand tied behind their back. I get it, language is hard. But for me, it's just another day in the park. 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