Fluke: Chance, Chaos, and Why Everything We Do Matters
Brian Klaas
Want to know what chaos theory can teach us about human events. 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. If you could rewind your life to the very beginning and then press play, would everything turn out the same. more
335 pages, Kindle Edition
First published Scribner
4.37
Rating
288
Ratings
62
Reviews
Brian Klaas
6 books 121 followers
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This book combines all the sciences that I am totally into: social/heuristic bias, mathiness, and philosophy. So it basically blew my mind. Klaas begins the book with the story of how war secretary H. M. Stimson (IIRC) avoided choosing Kyoto as a bombing location in WWII because he had been there and loved it so much - saving those people and condemning those in Hiroshima. more
We care about what happens to people we know, and they — we tend to believe — must have played a role in the event. This is how we form narratives, including the narrative of our own agency. But anything can change the course of our lives. A cloud moves, and a plane doesn’t take off or changes its flight path. We know that chance occurrences make a difference in the outcome, yet we resist this notion, partly because it seems unfair. more
"If you could rewind your life to the very beginning and then press play, would everything turn out the same. "It's not often (for me anyhow) that I read a book that really captures my attention, and has me thinking about it for a while after putting it down. Without wanting to sound braggadocious, I do read a fair bit, and sometimes the tedium and lackluster nature of certain books gets under my skin. This leaves me with book burnout from time to time, where I just don't feel like reading at all. Rarely do I have the pleasure of reading a book that can really get my gears turning, and present me with concepts that I haven't extensively explored on my own, or read about elsewhere. more
In No Country for Old Men, Cormac McCarthy wrote “You never know what worse luck your bad luck has saved you from. ” I've considered that on several occasions in my life, but after reading Fluke I may have to consider that luck might not even exist. The author wonders "whether the history of humanity is just an endless, but futile, struggle to impose order, certainty, and rationality onto a world defined by disorder, chance, and chaos. ” Klaas opens the book with the story of how Hiroshima and Nagasaki were chosen to be bombed, and it comes down to the fact that Henry Stimson, US Secretary of War, had visited Kyoto and took that city off the list so Hiroshima was bombed instead. Clouds covered Kokura which had been the target of the second atomic bomb but cleared over Nagasaki at the last possible moment. more
An interesting excerpt from the book:https://www. theatlantic. com/internati. Sample:"The 21st century has been defined by unexpected shocks—major upheavals that have upended the world many of us have known and made our lives feel like the playthings of chaos. Every few years comes a black swan–style event: September 11, the financial crisis, the Arab Spring, Brexit, the election of Donald Trump, the coronavirus pandemic, wars in Ukraine and Gaza. more
This book does lack originality for those who have read in this area before. I have previously read most if not all the authors this author cites, and that made for some redundancy in the story telling for me. Also, he didn’t cite Stephen Pinker by name, but he probably had 10 or more stories or concepts that went straight back to Pinker’s book The Better Angels of our Natures, a book that I would no longer recommend, but at the time I first read it I loved it. The familiarity in this story doesn’t necessarily make this a bad book and it can still be worth reading. There are worldviews that automatically think something to the effect that an immaterial being listens to my thoughts because I am special, ‘everything happens for a reason’, and sin is not an imaginary construct and is a real thing and we can be judged for our behavior by a mind reader for out thought crimes and for our actions. more
In Brian Klaas's captivating book "Fluke," readers are taken on an intriguing journey exploring the concept of chance and its profound influence on our lives. The narrative commences with an explosive opening, drawing readers into the realm of chance and its ripple effects. The initial chapters present a treasure trove of captivating anecdotes, such as the butterfly effect of a present of a tie leading to a man narrowly avoiding 9/11. These stories serve as vivid illustrations of the book's central theme, highlighting how seemingly inconsequential events can set in motion a chain reaction, shaping individual fates and historical narratives in ways we could never foresee. However, as the book progresses, it takes a sharp turn towards philosophical melancholy. more
'Fluke' by Brian Klaas is an immersive journey through life’s intricate unpredictably and the profound influence of chance on our very existence. Klaas delves into the subject matter by covering a wide array of topics and themes, spanning from sociology and politics to philosophy and physics, basically offering refreshing views and food for thought for readers from all corners of society and academia. The book challenges our perceived control over life, revealing how seemingly inconsequential events can spiral into monumental shifts, leaving us humbled by the fragile nature of our existence. This is done by, on the one hand, liberating us from the illusion of complete control over our lives and systems and, on the other hand, by highlighting the effects human agency can have on major political, societal and more general life events. The opening story of the book goes ahead and illustrates the randomness of major political events very well by referring to the story of H. more
I freaking LOVED THIS BOOK. I will be reading it again and again. more
I enjoyed everything about this book. It was full of so many interesting stories that gave me much to think about. I will definitely be talking about/ recommending this book to everyone I know this year 😆 I did when an ARC in a goodreads giveaway, thank you. more
Loved Fluke. I fell in love with social science in grad school. For my 74th birthday I gave myself the ebook and the Audible and time to read. While Brian speaks a little fast I was enchanted and tho I've never visited, I live near the Santa Fe institute which I know of from grad school. I'm passionate about synchronicity. more
This would have been a much better book if the author had left out chapter 12. Based on his own family history, (he is descended through the second wife of a grandfather whose first wife murdered all their children and then herself, and if that hadn't happened he wouldn't exist) he explores how chaotic flukes beyond our control shape our lives in many ways, both good and bad. His image for this is Jorge Louis Borges' short story "The Garden of Forking Paths" where each choice opens and closes paths for us and others. Thus, our actions produce ripples that affect us, others and all human history. Since the subtitle speaks of "why everything we do matters", I expected this to lead to an exploration of how we should be careful how we use whatever powers of choice we have, the idea of the "nudge" which he mocks. more
2024 is off to a great start with amazing books, and the second I picked up this Brian Klaas book, I knew I’d love it. I really enjoyed Brian’s previous book Corruptable and was pleasantly surprised when I learned he had a new one coming out. As someone who falls in the camp of chaos theory and free will skepticism, I wasn’t sure which side Brian would land on, but he was speaking my language from the start. This book really highlights how completely random events determine outcomes, and Klaas starts with a great example. The first story he shares in this book is about how a guy’s vacation with his wife in Kiyoto decided where the U. more
This book was endlessly fascinating and I was glued to the pages. I understand that this is a very niche interest of mine and this book won't be for everyone. But for me it was perfect. more
That so much coincided with my own Life Experience was intriguing. The width and depth of the research that Klaas brought to the examples he used to buttress his arguments was astounding. The tapestry of ideas that he wove was not only entertaining but so well executed that it enlightened and inspired this Reader to see the World in a whole new way. I was concerned in the Final Chapters that he was going to instruct us to build a Spreadsheet for our Lives and was tremendously relieved when he introduced us to Lucretius and Butterflies instead. Five Stars. more
Mind-blowing at first and then deeply thought-provoking. Excellent audio narration by author Brian Klaas. Will listen again and then want to discuss. Highly recommend. "We control nothing but influence everything. more
There are some good parts to this book, but the premise drags out and there are some baseline assumptions — like Darwinism — that are asserted as truth and not explored. Glad I read it but not my highest recommendation. more
What an amazing and thought provoking read. Well written and read by the author himself, I couldn’t stop. This book is not for the closed minded individual. Want a book that will provoke hours of thinking about the question “WHY”. Then this is your book. more
Mind bending and paradigm shifting, that’s this book. Absolutely fascinating writing and indeed a rather comforting set of ideas make this book one of the most life changing reads I’ve discovered in awhile. Highly recommend. Wish I’d read it before I retired. . more
Brian Klaas makes a case for randomness in his book Fluke. He explains how most people want to feel they are in charge of their lives, but maybe we cannot always control our lives. Randomness really does make a difference to all of us. There is an old saying “man makes plans and God laughs”. Klaas makes a good case for how little control we really have over our lives by using examples and logic. more
The book is full of amazing genuine accounts of historical "flukes" and is also highly thought-provoking. The author's message that we all matter makes it upbeat. Every one of us matters. Read this book if you think you don't have a significant impact. more
FLUKE, Chance, Chaos, and Why Everything MattersBrian Klaas, 2024Are we the masters of our own fate and destiny or are lives predetermined by who parents were, where and when we were born, or by chance occurrences and circumstances during our lives beyond our control. On a world historical scale, does history only seem inevitable when viewed in retrospect. Is future history in many aspects unpredictable subject to contingency and chance as much as predictable trends and progress. These questions are the subject of Brian Klaas’s new book. We have all probably experienced at some point in our lives making at the time what seemed a trivial decision and have it lead to life changing consequences. more
Mind bending. Very well written. I am still trying to apply all the ideas presented to my chaotic life. Reading “Fluke” will change the way you see the world, understand your fellow humans and relate to things beyond your control. . more
On the whole, popular science books tell us about what science and scientists have achieved. Fluke is very different in this respect - in it, social scientist and professor of global politics Brian Klaas tells us about what the social sciences have failed to achieve, and why. Perhaps the most familiar aspects of this are in introducing the reader to the implications of chaos theory and of complexity, plus the fall out of the replication crisis that has rendered many older (and quite a few new) social science studies useless. Using plenty of engaging stories (including the fact that his own existence is the outcome, amongst other things, of a horrific killing) Klaas builds a picture of just how many small inputs come together to make anything happen in the complex system of human society. The implication of this is that is practically impossible to usefully predict the future in the social sciences (so much for Asimov's psychohistory) - in fact, hardly any social science (which includes economics) can say much that's useful about the future. more
Full disclosure: I entered a giveaway for this book because I expected to disagree with it but was drawn to understand the concepts at its core. I enjoy reading intelligent viewpoints that seem contrary to my own and was excited to win a copy. And, as I read, I found some unexpected common ground between my worldview and that of the author. The book centers around the idea that we can't control anything, but that, because the tiniest detail can dramatically alter the future, we can influence everything. Fluke does an excellent job making the case that we humans are not nearly as in control as we think and that some much of what we think we can control or explain is in fact out of our control and beyond our understanding. more
I’ve mentioned in many reviews that one of my favourite topics is the determinism vs free will debate. As a hard determinist it was inevitable that I would read Fluke. Two-weeks ago I was absorbed in Richard Flanagan’s book Question 7. Flanagan’s father worked as a slave labourer near Hiroshima when the atom bomb dropped, and the book mentions how Henry Stimson spared Kyoto from the atomic bomb. During the same week I listened to Brian Klaas (whom I'd never heard of) on a podcast, ‘If Life is Random, Is it Meaningless. more
Wow. Turns out the National Lampoon was correct: You are a fluke of the universe. *To attempt to summarize this book would be to do the book and its author an injustice. If I had to create a one-sentence description, it would be that “Flukes are not rare events, they are the way the universe works. ”It’s not what I’d call a beach read, but I found it accessible, and full of examples that illustrate the points. more
Thought provoking and entertaining. Another well written, easy reading, entertaining and enlightening book from Klaas. In the era of communication by tweet, 10-second video clips and oversimplified news headlines, Fluke presents a timely appraisal of the simple, linear narrative, and the importance of understanding and acknowledging the complexity of the reality behind how events actually unfold. Klaas has a knack for storytelling, interweaving a jaw dropping number of seemingly separate, but nonetheless interdependent historical examples demonstrating how one person’s seemingly innocuous decision to honeymoon in Kyoto, or a child accidentally dropping their ball into the ocean can drastically change the lives of others, and the world as we know it. Our brains are designed to take shortcuts, convincing ourselves that we understand the relationships between events or decisions and outcomes, ignoring the fact that seemingly minute decisions and random events have played a significant role in shaping the world around us . more
3. 5*So. The early chapters of the book got a bit bogged down in defining Klaas's terminology (I think some of it was borrowed, some were his own coinages) and the concrete examples were a little sparse for my own understanding. I also thought there was an excess of the kind of sentimental statements to the effect that a bit of chaos/unpredictability makes life worth living. But I suppose it had to be said. more