“Klaas explores how seemingly inconsequential actions have life-changing consequences. This
utterly captivating book will make you rethink everything you have ever done.”
“Klaas’s beautifully written
application of chaos theory to human experience won’t just shift your paradigm, it’ll detonate it.”
FLUKE: Chance, Chaos, and Why Everything We Do Matters
In the perspective-altering tradition of Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point and Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s The Black Swan comes a provocative challenge to how we think our world works—and why small, chance events can divert our lives and change everything, by social scientist and Atlantic writer Brian Klaas.
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In Fluke, myth-shattering social scientist Brian Klaas deep-dives into the phenomenon of randomness, dismantling our neat and tidy storybook version of events to reveal a reality far wilder and more fascinating than we’ve dared to consider. The bewildering truth is that but for a few incidental changes, our lives – and our societies – would be radically different.
If you could rewind your life to the very beginning and then press play, would everything turn out the same? Or could making an accidental phone call or missing an exit off the highway change not just your life, but history itself? And would you remain blind to the radically different possible world you unknowingly left behind?
Offering an entirely new lens, Fluke explores how our world really works, driven by strange interactions and apparently random events. How did one couple’s vacation cause 100,000 people to die? Does our decision to hit the snooze button in the morning radically alter the trajectory of our lives? And has the evolution of humans been inevitable, or are we simply the product of a series of freak accidents?
Drawing on social science, chaos theory, history, evolutionary biology, and philosophy, Klaas provides a brilliantly fresh look at why things happen—all while providing mind-bending lessons on how we can live smarter, be happier, and lead more fulfilling lives.
“Consistently gripping—dazzling in its sweep and thrillingly brain-twisting in its arguments.”
More early praise for FLUKE
“At this book’s fascinating core is the idea that all of our actions count because of the web of connectivity that envelops us. Brian Klaas is masterful in surfacing stories of history upended on a whim.”
—Jonah Berger, New York Times bestselling author of Contagious
“A brilliant meditation on the eternal clash between chaos and order, and determinism and freedom. Klaas grapples with some of the most difficult, mind-bending questions of our time—or any time—[and] makes these heady topics a blast to read.”
—Scott Patterson, New York Times bestselling author of Chaos Kings and The Quants
“In Fluke, Brian Klaas calls attention to the way chance redirects our lives and spins us into new orbits, showing how we can be energized by all of the jostling. Klaas skillfully identifies the small levers that send history roaring forward. This is a must read!”
—Maya Shankar, founder of the White House Social and Behavior Sciences Team and creator of the podcast, “A Slight Change of Plans”
“In truth we are subject to a ceaseless barrage of unpredictable, but life-changing, events. Marshalling a series of provocative examples, Brian Klaas paints a convincing picture of the central role of randomness, and why there can nevertheless be a bit of order amid the chaos.”
—Sean Carroll, author of The Biggest Ideas in the Universe: Space, Time, and Motion
“Klaas expertly weaves riveting stories about real people, posing deep questions with uncertain answers. Self-exploration is a journey into the unknown, and Klaas is a genial guide.”
—Donald D. Hoffman, author of The Case Against Reality: How Evolution Hid the Truth from Our Eyes
“Drawing on many disciplines, this fascinating book explores the combination of chaos and order that governs our lives and probes the deep question of whether we truly have free will.”
—Mervyn King, co-author of Radical Uncertainty and former Governor of the Bank of England