Fluke: Chance, Chaos, and Why Everything We Do Matters

   
           媲美《引爆趨勢》（The Tipping Point）和《黑天鵝效應》（The Black Swan），《偶然》（Fluke）挑戰人們習以為常的思考模式，讓我們以嶄新的角度，審視生活中看似無足輕重的小事。
 
        若將生命倒轉到你出生的那一天，重新按下播放鍵，你的人生會是一樣的嗎？任何一個微乎其微的改變，好比隨手按下一個通話鍵，或不小心錯過了某個路口，是否有可能改寫人生後半段的劇本，連帶改變世界上的某一段歷史？
 
        擅長說故事的作者，引用著名的歷史事件、生物演化論、混沌理論和哲學思維，闡釋各種偶然的機遇，如何牽引個人的生命軌跡、改變世界原有的秩序，甚至引發難以預期的衝擊。這些反思，將重新定義我們看待世界的方式，進一步激發我們的想像，以更透徹的眼光看待萬事萬物，反思如何把自己的人生經營得更快樂、更有意義。(文/博客來編譯)

        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? 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?

        In Fluke, myth-shattering social scientist Brian Klaas dives deeply into the phenomenon of random chance and the chaos it can sow, taking aim at most people’s neat and tidy storybook version of reality. The book’s argument is that we willfully ignore a bewildering truth: but for a few small changes, our lives--and our societies--could be radically different.

        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.

布萊恩‧克拉斯（Brian Klass）是牛津大學哲學博士，現為倫敦大學學院（University College London）全球政治學教授，文章散見於《大西洋》文學與文化評論媒體、《紐約時報》、《衛報》等國際權威媒體，同時也是podcast得獎節目《權力腐敗》（Power Corrupts）的主持人。曾出版多本與政治學相關的書籍，前作《腐敗：獨裁者與他們的產地》（Corruptible）榮登《柯克斯書評》（Kirkus）年度選書。

Brian Klaas grew up in Minnesota, earned his DPhil at Oxford, and is now a professor of global politics at University College London. He is a contributing writer for The Atlantic, host of the award-winning Power Corrupts podcast, and frequent guest on national television. Klaas has conducted field research across the globe and advised major politicians and organizations including NATO and the European Union. You can find him at BrianPKlaas.com and on Twitter @BrianKlaas.