The Theory That Would Not Die: How Bayes' Rule Cracked the Enigma Code, Hunted Down Russian Submarines, and Emerged Triumphant from Two Centuries of Controversy Audiobook

" Abandoned; not a bad narrative of the development of Bayesian methods, but lacks any substantial mathematical content. Given the historical examples in the book, that seems like a missed opportunity, even if only as an appendix. "

" Of course I wish there had been more math - there are exactly two equations in the entire book - but that's to be expected. I did enjoy all of the anecdotes about famous mathematicians. George Box in particular sounded like quite a character. But ultimately I found the book a little disappointing. Since Bayes is as much a state of mind as a set of techniques, sometimes the author was reduced to essentially "it kinda looks like they used Bayesian reasoning to solve that problem, but we can't know for sure." Still, worth reading for anyone interested in the history of science and technology, and very accessible even for the non-mathematically inclined. "

" Good, but only for trufans "

" Stories about math tend to be either well intentioned and obtuse or populist and shallow. This manages to walk the line between the two, which is rare, but does lean slightly towards the latter. Still a solid read, mixing history, obsession and science nicely. "

" Definitely did not make it through this; I agree with the reviewers who thought the book needed a little more explicit detail. There really is almost no "math" in book, at least the parts I got through. Seems a lot less interesting that way to me. "

" Really interesting book about history of probability theory and some unlikely heroes. The science environment surrounding WWII is endlessly fascinating and this book has some great insight. "

" A good story of the people involved, and how they used the theory (or not), but not a good source for a layperson who also wants to understand it better and how it was used in all these ways. "

" 'Bayes' rule can be described in one sentence: by updating our initial beliefs with objective new information, we get a new and improved belief.' "

" This book is a great in-depth look at the history of Bayesian statistics and application of Bayesian Statistical methods. I would recommend this book to anyone who is curious about Bayesian statistics, or anyone with a curiosity about how belief updating works in general. "

" Plodding at times. Neither the math nor the people truly come to life. But, a decent overview. "

" Statistics, history, philosophy and academic politics; what more could a nerd want? Laplace is my hero. Bayes Rule is a very different way to think about problems. P(A|B)=[P(B|A)P(A)]/P(B) "

" Interesting and informative read about the history and applications of Bayesian statistics. Too light on the mathematics, so to get the most from this book I'd suggest you first skim the basics of frequentist and Bayesian philosophies on Wikipedia. Recommended. "

" The writing was atrocious. It was unreadable. "

" Was interested at first, but got tired of reading it. Had to put it down and take something else up. "

" Very slow start but well written and interesting. Definitely not pleasure reading / relaxing. Will plan to revisit if I ever end up having time for non-work related technical reading. "