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The Black Swan

The Impact of the Highly Improbable

Author: Nassim Nicholas Taleb  

Paperback

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.

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Summary

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.

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Description

A condensed guide to life from the bestselling author of The Black Swan, Nassim Nicholas Taleb's The Bed of Procrustes is an invaluable collection of aphorisms navigate the modern worldWhy are we so often unwilling to accept that life is unpredictable? In this brilliant book Nassim Nicholas Taleb distils his idiosyncratic wisdom to demolish our illusions, contrasting the classical values of courage, elegance and erudition against modern philistinism and phoniness. Only by accepting what we don't know, he shows, can we see the world as it really is.'Happily provocative ... blistering ... his observations concern superiority, wealth, suckerdom, academia, modernity, technology and the all-purpose, ignorant "they" ... very quotable' - The New York Times

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Critic Reviews

“Great fun 'e”

A fascinating study of how we are regularly taken for suckers by the unexpected Guardian
Like the conversation of a raconteur ... hugely enjoyable - compelling Financial Times
It has altered modern thinking The Times
Confirms his status as a guru for every would-be Damien Hirst, George Soros and aspirant despot Sunday Times
The Black Swan changed my view of how the world works -- Daniel Kahneman, author of Thinking, Fast and Slow
Great fun... brash, stubborn, entertaining, opinionated, curious, cajoling -- Stephen J. Dubner, co-author of Freakonomics
The most prophetic voice of all GQ

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About the Author

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.%%%Nassim Nicholas Taleb is a radical no-nonsense philosopher 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.

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Product Details

Publisher
Penguin Books Ltd
Published
28th February 2008
Pages
480
ISBN
9780141034591

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