The Black Swan (the Impact Of The Highly Improbable)

By (author) Taleb, Nassim Nicholas
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By (author) Taleb, Nassim Nicholas
Short description/annotation:
What have the invention of the wheel, Pompeii, the Wall Street Crash, Harry Potter and the internet got in common? Why are all forecasters con-artists? What can Catherine the Great''s lovers tell us about probability? Why should you never run for a train or read a newspaper? This title deals with this questions.
Description:

The phenomenal international bestseller that shows us how to stop trying to predict everything - and take advantage of uncertainty

What have the invention of the wheel, Pompeii, the Wall Street Crash, Harry Potter and the internet got in common? Why are all forecasters con-artists? Why should you never run for a train or read a newspaper?

This book is all about Black Swans: the random events that underlie our lives, from bestsellers to world disasters. Their impact is huge; they''re impossible to predict; yet after they happen we always try to rationalize them.

''Taleb is a bouncy and even exhilarating guide ... I came to relish what he said, and even develop a sneaking affection for him as a person'' Will Self, Independent on Sunday

''He leaps like some superhero of the mind'' Boyd Tonkin, Independent


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A fascinating study of how we are regularly taken for suckers by the unexpected
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Like the conversation of a raconteur ... hugely enjoyable - compelling
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It has altered modern thinking
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Confirms his status as a guru for every would-be Damien Hirst, George Soros and aspirant despot
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The Black Swan changed my view of how the world works
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Great fun... brash, stubborn, entertaining, opinionated, curious, cajoling
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The most prophetic voice of all
Biographical note:
Nassim Nicholas Taleb is an uncompromizing no-nonsense thinker for our times. He has spent his life immersing himself in problems of luck, uncertainty, probability, and knowledge, and he has led three high-profile careers around his ideas, as a man of letters, as a businessman-trader, and as a university professor and researcher. He is currently Distinguished Professor of Risk Engineering at New York University''s School of Engineering. He is the author of the 4-volume INCERTO (Antifragile, The Black Swan, Fooled by Randomness, and The Bed of Procrustes). Taleb refuses all awards and honours as they debase knowledge by turning it into competitive sports.