True Lives: Alexander the Great

Jean-Philippe Bouchaud offered a great deal of help on the problems associated with the statistics of large deviations. Michael Allen wrote a monograph for writers looking to get published, based on the ideas of Chapter 8БЂ”I subsequently rewrote Chapter 8 through the eyes of a writer looking at his lot in life. Mark Blyth was always helpful as a sounding board, reader, and adviser. My friends at the DoD, Andy Marshall and Andrew Mays, supplied me with ideas and questions. Paul Solman, a voracious mind, went through the manuscript with severe scrutiny. I owe the term Extremistan to Chris Anderson, who found my earlier designation too bookish. Nigel Harvey guided me through the literature on forecasting. I plied the following scientists with questions: Terry Burnham, Robert Trivers, Robyn Dawes, Peter Ayton, Scott Atran, Dan Goldstein, Alexander Reisz, Art De Vany, Raphael Douady, Piotr Zielonka, Gur Huberman, Elkhonon Goldberg, and Dan Sperber. Ed Thorp, the true living owner of the БЂњBlack-Scholes formulaБЂ«was helpful; I realized, speaking to him, that economists ignore intellectual productions outside their clubБЂ”regardless how valuable ...»