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The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable
by: Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Used Price: $8.94

Binding: Paperback
EAN: 9780141034591
Format: Import
ISBN: 0141034599
Label: Penguin Books Ltd
Manufacturer: Penguin Books Ltd
Number Of Pages: 400
Publication Date: February 28, 2008
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Sales Rank: 12649
Studio: Penguin Books Ltd

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Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- A Major Achievement -- Don't Miss It!
Most of the criticisms of Taleb and this book seem sensible:

- His confidence sometimes seems to reach the level of condescending arrogance.

- With a wave of the hand, he dismisses those he disagrees with, even Nobel prize winners. And perhaps he oversimplifies their positions in order to argue with their straw-man shadows.

- He often circles around his points without winding up finally making his points clear. Is this how a supposedly street-smart guy should talk?

- His frequent digressions make it hard for the reader to follow the thread of his narrative, sometimes giving the impression that there actually is no such thread, and that we're just witnessing his stream of consciousness.

- One could argue that the more technical chapters are written poorly and are therefore too unclear.

- Many of his ideas aren't as original as he seems ... Read More

Rating:

- Outliers
The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable

This book is especially relevant in these "turbulent" economic times. In a way, this book is an example of the subject which it discusses, in that it is far removed from the conventional or "normal" book on the role of chance in our lives, including the financial realm. It will make you think harder than you ever have before about your comfortable assumptions concerning "randomness". But more than that, it will teach you to be a better critical thinker by practicing skepticism daily. I have been using selected readings from this book in an informal "seminar" on the current financial "crisis", and it has provided many very useful contributions to the discussion. As an engineer in aviation safety, I am very interested in the unexpected and the unanticipated, and the tradeoffs between the costs of preventing accidents and the costs of having them happen. ... Read More

Rating:

- Not a history of black swan events
I think I expected something different, like a presentation of various black swan type events. The author, comments and speaks and comments in an essay style which I found dissapointing. Same valid for his other book: Fooled by Randomness.I think readers will get a better deal if they read "Extraordinary Illusions and Madness of the Crowds" as well as most of the shareholder letters posted on gurufocus.com.

Rating:

- Open your mind
I must recognize that through the easy and entertaining Mr Taleb's style, I have adquired a wider vision of how we, as human beings, mostly and unreasonably make predictions.
300 pages would have been enough (it has 400, at least in spanish edition).
Nevertheless, I highly recommend this book. Open you mind and have fun!

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