Against the Gods

Why it’s on the list: Peter Bernstein’s history of risk — how humanity moved from treating the future as fate to treating it as probability, from early probability theory through modern portfolio theory. It is the origin story for the vocabulary I use to talk about uncertainty.

Where I heard about it

• Mohnish Pabrai — named it a must-read in his list of the six books that most helped him learn to invest, via a thread by Daniel Mahncke, November 2023.
• A Goldman Sachs reading list — on the firm’s recommended reading list (careers site), shared by @F_Compounders on X, July 2025.
• A reply to @WillManidis — named in answer to his question “what is the single best book you can read that will explain an entire industry?” in a thread on X, June 2025. Full list: what is the single best book… (tweet).
• A reply to @typesfast — named in answer to “What’s the best history book you’ve read?” in a thread on X, June 2025. Full list: What’s the best history book… (tweet).
• Recommended in Jim O’Shaughnessy’s investing book-recommendations thread on X (started February 2019, extended through 2021); in April 2020 — 1 Some book recommendations Rules… (tweet).
• In Patrick O’Shaughnessy’s Full Reading List (Investor Field Guide, 2016) — the archive of his monthly book-club recommendations, saved by Kyle in April 2020 — Full Reading List (Investor Field Guide).
• In Patrick O’Shaughnessy’s A Curriculum for the Modern Investor, saved by Kyle in April 2020 — A Curriculum for the Modern Investor (Patrick O’Shaughnessy).

Connections

• 1 Some book recommendations Rules… (tweet) — recommended it.
• Mohnish Pabrai — recommended it
• Risk
• Probabilistic Thinking
• Goldman Sachs Recommended reading list… (tweet) — recommendation #2: on Goldman Sachs’s reading list.
• what is the single best book… (tweet) — recommendation #3: named in this crowd-sourced thread.
• What’s the best history book… (tweet) — recommendation #4: named in this crowd-sourced thread.