The Hot Hand

The Mystery and Science of Streaks

By: Benjamin Cohen

Narrated by: Michael David Axtell

How can you maximize success—and limit failure? Wall Street Journal reporter Ben Cohen brilliantly investigates the mystery and science of streaks.

""A feast for anyone interested in the secrets of excellence."" —Andre Agassi

For decades, statisticians, social scientists, psychologists, and economists (among them Nobel Prize winners) have spent massive amounts of precious time thinking about whether streaks actually exist. After all, a substantial number of decisions that we make in our everyday lives are quietly rooted in this one question: If something happened before, will it happen again? Is there such a thing as being in the zone? Can someone have a “hot hand”? Or is it simply a case of seeing patterns in randomness? Or, if streaks are possible, where can they be found?

In The Hot Hand, Wall Street Journal reporter Ben Cohen offers an unfailingly entertaining and provocative investigation into these questions. He begins with how a $35,000 fine and a wild night in New York revived a debate about the existence of streaks that was several generations in the making. We learn how the ability to recognize and then bet against streaks turned a business school dropout named David Booth into a billionaire, and how the subconscious nature of streak-related bias can make the difference between life and death for asylum seekers. We see how previously unrecognized streaks hidden amidst archival data helped solve one of the most haunting mysteries of the twentieth century, the disappearance of Raoul Wallenberg. Cohen also exposes how streak-related incentives can be manipulated, from the five-syllable word that helped break arcade profit records to an arc of black paint that allowed Stephen Curry to transform from future junior high coach into the greatest three-point shooter in NBA history. Crucially, Cohen also explores why false recognition of nonexistent streaks can have cataclysmic results, particularly if you are a sugar beet farmer or the sort of gambler who likes to switch to black on the ninth spin of the roulette wheel.

Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

Well written, but not concise

The book is well-written and read. The narration is on point and the story flows. The problem is that the story is less about the "hot hand" and more about a collection of people who sort of ish thought or interacted with a concept of the hot hand. Ultimately I ended up returning the book because while the stories were interesting and well narrated, I wanted to learn about the science of streaks, not the lives of a collection of individuals I really do not care that much about.

Excellent all around.

Goes into my top ten of behavioral economics. Fun history. Interesting story. Well articulated. Good performance.

Cool and fun!

Great study on a fascinating topic. Covers many areas of interest pertaining to the subject. Surprising ending!

Felt a lot like a Gladwell book

I discovered this one while listening to “The Pomp Podcast.” Cohen was on that show and presented a really fun discussion about the NBA and the Golden State Warriors. Wanting to keep that excitement going, I picked this one up.

For the most part, I thought it was pretty solid. The writing style actually reminds me a lot of a Malcolm Gladwell book, as it interweaves seemingly unrelated stories, makes relatively mundane concepts super interesting, and puts names to ideas and theories that you didn’t know had them.

I do think there are some stories within it that feel slightly out of place or unfinished, however, so for that reason, I’m going four stars here. It was a fun read though, and I’d definitely recommend it to folks who like the “Gladwell” style of writing.

-Brian Sachetta
Author of “Get Out of Your Head”

Imitates Michael Lewis book to perfection

The Hot Hand wants to be Michael Lewis’ moneyball/undoing project so bad.

If you didn’t know any better, you would think this was a Michael Lewis book.

Complete with whole chapter on Israeli psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky.

Complete with starting three stories and tying them together in unpredictable ways.

I’ve never seen better imitation.