{ "item_title" : "The Hot Hand", "item_author" : [" Ben Cohen "], "item_description" : "How can youmaximize success--and limit failure? Wall Street Journal reporterBen Cohen brilliantly investigates the mystery and science of streaks, from basketball to business.A feastfor anyone interested in the secrets of excellence. --Andre AgassiFor decades, statisticians, social scientists, psychologists, and economists (among them Nobel Prizewinners) have spent massive amounts of precious time thinking about whetherstreaks actually exist. After all, a substantial number of decisions that wemake in our everyday lives are quietly rooted in this one question: Ifsomething happened before, will it happen again? Is there such a thing as beingin the zone? Can someone have a hot hand? Or is it simply a case of seeingpatterns in randomness? Or, if streaks are possible, where can they be found?In The Hot Hand, Wall StreetJournal reporter Ben Cohen offers an unfailingly entertaining andprovocative investigation into these questions. He begins with how a $35,000fine and a wild night in New York revived a debate about the existence ofstreaks that was several generations in the making. We learn how the ability torecognize and then bet against streaks turned a business school dropout namedDavid Booth into a billionaire, and how the subconscious nature ofstreak-related bias can make the difference between life and death for asylumseekers. We see how previously unrecognized streaks hidden amidst archival datahelped solve one of the most haunting mysteries of the twentieth century, thedisappearance of Raoul Wallenberg. Cohen also exposes how streak-relatedincentives can be manipulated, from the five-syllable word that helped breakarcade profit records to an arc of black paint that allowed Stephen Curry totransform from future junior high coach into the greatest three-point shooterin NBA history. Crucially, Cohen also explores why false recognition ofnonexistent streaks can have cataclysmic results, particularly if you are asugar beet farmer or the sort of gambler who likes to switch to black on theninth spin of the roulette wheel.", "item_img_path" : "https://covers4.booksamillion.com/covers/bam/0/06/282/072/0062820729_b.jpg", "price_data" : { "retail_price" : "32.50", "online_price" : "32.50", "our_price" : "32.50", "club_price" : "32.50", "savings_pct" : "0", "savings_amt" : "0.00", "club_savings_pct" : "0", "club_savings_amt" : "0.00", "discount_pct" : "10", "store_price" : "" } }

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The Hot Hand

Is there really such a thing as a “hot streak”—a prolonged span of consistent success? In his debut book, The Hot Hand: The Mystery and Science of Streaks, Wall Street Journal sports reporter Ben Cohen takes a deep dive into this fascinating, often misunderstood phenomenon. 

Cleverly crafted through stories, examples, personal experiences, research studies, expert opinion and theories, The Hot Hand relies heavily on Cohen’s sports reporting expertise, with entertaining illustrations taken from both the basketball court and baseball diamond. These include a high school basketball team that adopted a winning strategy of shooting the ball only when very close to the basket or very far away, the success of NBA star shooter Stephen Curry and the interplay between an unlikely MLB starting pitcher and batter on a sticky Texas evening. 

But this book isn’t just about sports. “[A hot streak] happens to different people in different professions for entirely different reasons,” says Cohen, providing illustrations from the farming industry, computer gaming, business, Shakespeare, the art world and even how the music streaming service Spotify got the kinks out of its shuffle algorithm. He also delves into the difference between the gambler’s fallacy (how we perceive outcomes that are beyond our control) and the hot-hand fallacy (how we perceive outcomes we feel we can control).

Along with real-life examples are pages of authoritative commentary about the psychological and evolutionary ramifications of hot streaks, including a fascinating interjection from a professor who relates hot streaks to cognitive adaptation, suggesting our ancestors relied on the hot hand to forage. Cohen also covers comparative advantage—betting against the hot hand as an effective business strategy.

The Hot Hand is an interesting and thought-provoking book on a topic that isn’t often discussed but that impacts many different interests, activities and industries. Cohen sums it up best: “The hot hand is not a random occurrence. It’s the collision of talent, circumstance, and even a little bit of luck.”