An Economist Walks into a Brothel
And Other Unexpected Places to Understand Risk
About the book
Economist and award-winning journalist Allison Schrager looks for lessons about risk in unlikely places. She sets out five principles for handling it, drawn from people who take risks for a living: a professional poker player on staying rational at high stakes, a Manhattan paparazzo on spotting different kinds of risk, Kentucky horse breeders on diversifying and limiting losses, and a general who led troops in Iraq on preparing for the unforeseen. Other cases include sex workers weighing paid security against keeping their income and a surfer chasing a 50-foot wave in shark-infested water. She holds that nobody can opt out of risk; the only real choice is which risks to take.
Tyler Cowen called it the best, most readable and most adventurous treatment of risk available, and Adam Grant endorsed it as an informative and entertaining look at risk in the spirit of Freakonomics.
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This book has 2 recommendations
Tyler Cowen (Founder/Marginal Revolution University)
Allison Schrager’s An Economist Walks Into a Brothel is the best, most readable, most informative, most adventurous, and most entertaining take on risk you will find.
Adam Grant (Author)
If you want to understand risk better, you have to go into some unconventional settings. In the tradition of Freakonomics, that’s what Allison Schrager does as an economist, and her book is not just informative—it’s an entertaining read too
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