The Enlightened Gambler


Book Description

"THE ENLIGHTENED GAMBLER, The Heart and Spirit of the Risk Taker in All of us" guides the reader through the author's world of gambling, seduced by the never ending excitement in the "land of uncertainty." The book encourages readers to step past the superficial and take a more conscious view of the motivating drive in all of us to take risks. In a lighthearted, sometimes laugh-out-loud, self deprecating style, the author playfully and willingly exposes his own vulnerability to the seductive lure of gambling, but then points out ways to encourage winning attitudes, which he has developed over the years, while defusing old, toxic, loser mentality. You can find my blogs at www.theenlightenedgambler.com. "I wrote this book, first of all, to point out that everybody gambles, but most people don't call what they do gambling. Some of the risks we take in life work out and some don't. Right? Well guess what? I call those risks gambles. I also wrote this book to help you laugh out loud about all the dumb moves I made as a gambler, and maybe, just maybe, after laughing out loud at MY screw-ups, you'll sit back and take a look at your own. I say, if you want to play, you have to pay. One way or another. You either lose your stubborn defiance or you lose your shirt. So which one ya gonna choose?"




The Gambler Wife


Book Description

FINALIST FOR THE PEN JACQUELINE BOGRAD WELD AWARD FOR BIOGRAPHY “Feminism, history, literature, politics—this tale has all of that, and a heroine worthy of her own turn in the spotlight.” —Therese Anne Fowler, bestselling author of Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald A revelatory new portrait of the courageous woman who saved Dostoyevsky’s life—and became a pioneer in Russian literary history In the fall of 1866, a twenty-year-old stenographer named Anna Snitkina applied for a position with a writer she idolized: Fyodor Dostoyevsky. A self-described “girl of the sixties,” Snitkina had come of age during Russia’s first feminist movement, and Dostoyevsky—a notorious radical turned acclaimed novelist—had impressed the young woman with his enlightened and visionary fiction. Yet in person she found the writer “terribly unhappy, broken, tormented,” weakened by epilepsy, and yoked to a ruinous gambling addiction. Alarmed by his condition, Anna became his trusted first reader and confidante, then his wife, and finally his business manager—launching one of literature’s most turbulent and fascinating marriages. The Gambler Wife offers a fresh and captivating portrait of Anna Dostoyevskaya, who reversed the novelist’s freefall and cleared the way for two of the most notable careers in Russian letters—her husband’s and her own. Drawing on diaries, letters, and other little-known archival sources, Andrew Kaufman reveals how Anna protected her family from creditors, demanding in-laws, and her greatest romantic rival, through years of penury and exile. We watch as she navigates the writer’s self-destructive binges in the casinos of Europe—even hazarding an audacious turn at roulette herself—until his addiction is conquered. And, finally, we watch as Anna frees her husband from predatory contracts by founding her own publishing house, making Anna the first solo female publisher in Russian history. The result is a story that challenges ideas of empowerment, sacrifice, and female agency in nineteenth-century Russia—and a welcome new appraisal of an indomitable woman whose legacy has been nearly lost to literary history.




The Gambler's Daughter


Book Description

In exploring her father's own gambling addiction, the author uncovers a hidden history of gambling in the Jewish community. Screening calls from her fathers creditors, hiding his mail from her motherbeing the child of a compulsive gambler wasnt easy, and Annette B. Dunlap thought for years that her experience was a singular one. In early adulthood, she was fortunate enough to learn that she was not unique, that other children had grown up with parents (usually fathers) addicted to gambling. But when she learned, shortly before her mother died, that her grandfather had also been involved in gambling, she realized the extent to which gambling was a part of her family history. As she delved further into the subject, she also discovered the extent to which gambling is, in her words, a peculiarly Jewish addiction. Framing the issue of gambling in both historical and sociological terms, Dunlap examines the struggle between the official Jewish communityJewish leaders have long either condemned or ignored the evils of gamblingand the significant number of everyday Jews who continue to gamble, many at a level that would be considered addictive. Gambling continues to be a serious problem within the Jewish community, Dunlap argues, regardless of whether the person is Orthodox or a Jew in name only. The Gamblers Daughter is both a personal story of a fathers gambling addiction and a more general inquiry into the hidden history of gambling in the Jewish community. Readers who either live or have lived with an addictive family member will find the book useful, as will those students of Jewish social history interested in a long-ignored facet of American Jewish life.




The Romance of Gambling in the Eighteenth-Century British Novel


Book Description

Gambling permeated the daily lives of eighteenth-century Britons of all classes. This book explicates the relationship between the rampant gambling in eighteenth-century England, the new forms of gambling-inspired capitalism that transformed British society, and novels that interrogate the new socio-economy of long odds and lucky breaks.




Enlightened Planning


Book Description

Strategy, risk management and project management are often considered separately by those applying their principles—but at their most effective, all are dependent upon each other for success. Enlightened Planning teaches this holistic perspective and demonstrates how a synthesis of these approaches yields far greater opportunities. A strategic, calculated risk, for example, can be less inherently risky than chronic risk aversion over time. Here, a respected specialist and teacher demonstrates how to become an 'enlightened planner', one that is aware of project, strategy and risk concerns, and their potential interplay. Following the core principle of Keep It Simple Systematically, he shows how organised, systematic thought processes can demystify the complexities of decision-making when considering a huge variety of concerns at once. Supported throughout with real-life cases from the author’s considerable experiences with commercial organisations, it is also supported by a website containing even more cases, learning and teaching materials. This book is essential reading for any practitioner specialising in risk management, project management or strategy; as well as those teachers or participants in executive programmes.




The Theory of Gambling and Statistical Logic


Book Description

Covering all aspects of gambling, The Theory of Gambling and Statistical Logic is mathematically sophisticated, but can be read for what it says about the games and strategies, skipping the technicalities. The material is fascinating and detailed, and the analysis is masterful.




The Sociology of Risk and Gambling Reader


Book Description

First Published in 2006. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.




Classical Probability in the Enlightenment, New Edition


Book Description

An award-winning history of the Enlightenment quest to devise a mathematical model of rationality What did it mean to be reasonable in the Age of Reason? Enlightenment mathematicians such as Blaise Pascal, Jakob Bernoulli, and Pierre Simon Laplace sought to answer this question, laboring over a theory of rational decision, action, and belief under conditions of uncertainty. Lorraine Daston brings to life their debates and philosophical arguments, charting the development and application of probability theory by some of the greatest thinkers of the age. Now with an incisive new preface, Classical Probability in the Enlightenment traces the emergence of new kind of mathematics designed to turn good sense into a reasonable calculus.




The Jesus Gamble


Book Description

. Why does God allow suffering? . Are all religious expressions equally valid? . Do evil spirits exist? In The Jesus Gamble author Michael Rowles answers these and other questions in a systematic and readable style. He applies sound logic without downplaying the reality of the supernatural world. His main focus however, is the person of Jesus Christ. He demonstrates that many historical and contemporary beliefs about Jesus of Nazareth are simply implausible. Instead, following the trail of clues deliberately left by God Himself within the pages of the Bible, he leads us to the inescapable conclusion as to who this man Jesus really was, what he accomplished, and what the implications of this discovery are. The Jesus Gamble is for those who seek the truth and are willing to have their assumptions challenged.




Data-Driven Personalisation in Markets, Politics and Law


Book Description

The most fascinating and profitable subject of predictive algorithms is the human actor. Analysing big data through learning algorithms to predict and pre-empt individual decisions gives a powerful tool to corporations, political parties and the state. Algorithmic analysis of digital footprints, as an omnipresent form of surveillance, has already been used in diverse contexts: behavioural advertising, personalised pricing, political micro-targeting, precision medicine, and predictive policing and prison sentencing. This volume brings together experts to offer philosophical, sociological, and legal perspectives on these personalised data practices. It explores common themes such as choice, personal autonomy, equality, privacy, and corporate and governmental efficiency against the normative frameworks of the market, democracy and the rule of law. By offering these insights, this collection on data-driven personalisation seeks to stimulate an interdisciplinary debate on one of the most pervasive, transformative, and insidious socio-technical developments of our time.