01/13/2020
In this meandering debut, Cohen, a Wall Street Journal sports reporter, asks what makes for winning streaks. The “hot hand” of the title is the state of being in the zone, of making one win after another, seemingly effortlessly. Cohen’s lifelong love for basketball is an excellent excuse for exploring why this happens, which he does through stories of a high school basketball team that used data to improve its game, as well as through a video game developer, a viola player, a sculptor, and many others. Is the hot hand real—can a person or team identify what led to a winning streak and thus replicate those factors? Sometimes, waffles Cohen, and when one can harness a streak, it’s a lucrative and rewarding endeavor. The narratives are reasonably entertaining and the math persuasive, but without much rationale except expressing the author’s love for basketball, the execution is unfocused. Readers looking for an answer as to whether they can strategize their winning streaks could be forgiven for wanting something more decisive than the author’s tepid “well, kinda.” Agent: Eric Lupfer, Fletcher & Company. (Mar.)
I’ve been on both sides of the ‘hot hand.’ I’ve had it, and I’ve faced opponents who had it. And I’ve written extensively about the role it played in my life. But Ben Cohen offers up an original and riveting deep dive on this fascinating topic, which relates to so many other pursuits. A feast for anyone interested in the secrets of excellence.” — Andre Agassi, winner of eight Grand Slam titles and New York Times bestselling author of Open
"Engaging... Intriguing." — New York Times Book Review
"Fascinating, eye-opening and consistently entertaining, The Hot Hand asks a big question: how do we determine when one success will likely follow another? The answer is not only surprising, but instructive.” — Charles Duhigg, New York Times bestselling author of The Power of Habit and Smarter Faster Better
"A fascinating look at decision-making and success." — Sports Illustrated
“Long before I reached the end of this provocative and uniquely brilliant book, I knew I would never be ‘finished’ with it. Ben Cohen’s research shows how every day, from basketball to business to beet farming, human events are profoundly shaped by the power of streaks. I will never make another difficult decision without considering this.” — Sam Walker, bestselling author of The Captain Class
“A fascinating book on the elusive allure of being on a roll. For any fans of human psychology, or numbers geeks, wolves of wall street, basketball obsessives – and anyone else who loves great stories that hint at the mysteries behind our decision-making, belief…and occasional runaway success.” — Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, New York Times bestselling author of Everybody Lies
"Captivating." — Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
“Wall Street Journal sports reporter Cohen looks into the odd ‘science of streaks’… Cohen returns, always, to the game of basketball, but he pauses along the way to provide fascinating looks at coin tosses, investments, farm yields, and other real-world instances of how probability plays out in the world. Sports fans and science geeks alike will enjoy these travels in the world where numbers, luck, and superstardom meet.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“An unfailingly entertaining and provocative investigation… An absorbing, thoughtful and thought-provoking read throughout.” — Midwest Book Review
"Cleverly crafted...an interesting and thought-provoking book on a topic that isn’t often discussed but that impacts many different interests, activities and industries." — BookPage
“The Hot Hand lends itself to fans of basketball, stats and stories well told." — Free-Lance Star (Fredericksburg, VA)
"Fans of Michael Lewis and Malcolm Gladwell will devour this one.”Lee Woodruff, New York Times bestselling author
"Fascinating." — The Federalist
"An entertaining and provocative investigation into the seductive idea that streaks not only exist, but can be created." — Brooklyn Digest
“Supremely engrossing… The book is a page-turner if ever there was one.” — MoneyControl
"An intelligent popular social science book." — Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution
"Fascinating. ... It's something that if you're either a math or a sports geek, you're going to find really intriguing." — Barry Ritholtz, Bloomberg's "Masters in Business" podcast
"An engaging and provocative look into what it really means to get hot. Curious as to how you can maximize success? Read on." — Ozy
"Fascinating, eye-opening and consistently entertaining, The Hot Hand asks a big question: how do we determine when one success will likely follow another? The answer is not only surprising, but instructive.
"Cleverly crafted...an interesting and thought-provoking book on a topic that isn’t often discussed but that impacts many different interests, activities and industries."
A fascinating book on the elusive allure of being on a roll. For any fans of human psychology, or numbers geeks, wolves of wall street, basketball obsessives – and anyone else who loves great stories that hint at the mysteries behind our decision-making, belief…and occasional runaway success.
I’ve been on both sides of the ‘hot hand.’ I’ve had it, and I’ve faced opponents who had it. And I’ve written extensively about the role it played in my life. But Ben Cohen offers up an original and riveting deep dive on this fascinating topic, which relates to so many other pursuits. A feast for anyone interested in the secrets of excellence.”
"Captivating."
An unfailingly entertaining and provocative investigation… An absorbing, thoughtful and thought-provoking read throughout.
Long before I reached the end of this provocative and uniquely brilliant book, I knew I would never be ‘finished’ with it. Ben Cohen’s research shows how every day, from basketball to business to beet farming, human events are profoundly shaped by the power of streaks. I will never make another difficult decision without considering this.
"Engaging... Intriguing."
New York Times Book Review
"A fascinating look at decision-making and success."
"Fascinating."
The Hot Hand lends itself to fans of basketball, stats and stories well told."
Free-Lance Star (Fredericksburg
"Fans of Michael Lewis and Malcolm Gladwell will devour this one.
Supremely engrossing… The book is a page-turner if ever there was one.”
"Fascinating. ... It's something that if you're either a math or a sports geek, you're going to find really intriguing."
"An engaging and provocative look into what it really means to get hot. Curious as to how you can maximize success? Read on."
"An entertaining and provocative investigation into the seductive idea that streaks not only exist, but can be created."
"An intelligent popular social science book."
Narrator Michael David Axtell brings energetic briskness to this exploration of how streaks are built across a range of industries from gambling to basketball. He is confident and interesting as he leads us through various case studies on how people come to recognize and maximize popular phenomena ahead of the curve. Axtell’s style is well suited to this heavily researched title, written by a journalist. He juggles the facts, figures, and details of professionals who range from tech whizzes to world-renowned athletes. Sweeping listeners along, he delivers this rapid-fire look at modern life and the singular figures who have maximized trends into millions and fame. Overall, he presents people and ideas with an engaging intensity that turns history into interesting stories. M.R. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine
Narrator Michael David Axtell brings energetic briskness to this exploration of how streaks are built across a range of industries from gambling to basketball. He is confident and interesting as he leads us through various case studies on how people come to recognize and maximize popular phenomena ahead of the curve. Axtell’s style is well suited to this heavily researched title, written by a journalist. He juggles the facts, figures, and details of professionals who range from tech whizzes to world-renowned athletes. Sweeping listeners along, he delivers this rapid-fire look at modern life and the singular figures who have maximized trends into millions and fame. Overall, he presents people and ideas with an engaging intensity that turns history into interesting stories. M.R. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine
★ 2020-01-12Wall Street Journal sports reporter Cohen looks into the odd "science of streaks."
Is there a "hot hand," the term basketball players use to describe that magical, endorphin-inducing moment when you can't miss a shot and "achieve some elevated state of ability in which you feel briefly superhuman"? It's one of the finest of psychological states, and if most of us don't land in it regularly, there are people like Steph Curry to study, as the author does. By the numbers, Curry shouldn't be the superstar shooter that he is—even though he's 6-feet-3 he's still smaller than most of the players he goes up against, a key datum point. What changed him was a summer spent teaching himself to shoot all over again: lifting the ball over his head and releasing it as he was jumping up, essentially making himself as tall as the defenders who would otherwise block his shots. That summer involved thousands of shots, and in the end, it made Curry "the best shooter the sport of basketball had ever seen." This case study provides a springboard for Cohen to look at such things as the construction of data sets. One of the cardinal sins involving data is to make conclusions with numbers that are too small to support them—whence the "law of small numbers," proposed by the Israeli psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, who themselves have written an improbably brilliant hot streak of scholarly papers. Cohen examines the use of those data sets to crunch all sorts of perhaps unlikely problems: Is a supposed lost masterpiece by Vincent van Gogh the real deal? Did Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat, really die of a heart attack, as the Soviets proclaimed, or did he die in the gulag? Cohen returns, always, to the game of basketball, but he pauses along the way to provide fascinating looks at coin tosses, investments, farm yields, and other real-world instances of how probability plays out in the world.
Sports fans and science geeks alike will enjoy these travels in the world where numbers, luck, and superstardom meet.
