The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Description

The-Black-Swan:-The-Impact-of-the-Highly-Improbable-by-Nassim-Nicholas-Taleb:A-black-swan-is-a-highly-improbable-event-with-three-principal-characteristics:-It-is-unpredictable;-it-carries-a-massive-impact;-and,-after-the-fact,-we-concoct-an-explanation-that-makes-it-appear-less-random,-and-more-predictable,-than-it-was.The-astonishing-success-of-Google-was-a-black-swan;-so-was-9/11.-For-Nassim-Nicholas-Taleb,-black-swans-underlie-almost-everything-about-our-world,-from-the-rise-of-religions-to-events-in-our-own-personal-lives.Why-do-we-not-acknowledge-the-phenomenon-of-black-swans-until-after-they-occur?-Part-of-the-answer,-according-to-Taleb,-is-that-humans-are-hardwired-to-learn-specifics-when-they-should-be-focused-on-generalities.We-concentrate-on-things-we-already-know-and-time-and-time-again-fail-to-take-into-consideration-what-we-don’t-know.-We-are,-therefore,-unable-to-truly-estimate-opportunities,-too-vulnerable-to-the-impulse-to-simplify,-narrate,-and-categorize,-and-not-open-enough-to-rewarding-those-who-can-imagine-the-“impossible.”For-years,-Taleb-has-studied-how-we-fool-ourselves-into-thinking-we-know-more-than-we-actually-do.-We-restrict-our-thinking-to-the-irrelevant-and-inconsequential,-while-large-events-continue-to-surprise-us-and-shape-our-world.-Now,-in-this-revelatory-book,-Taleb-explains-everything-we-know-about-what-we-don’t-know.-He-offers-surprisingly-simple-tricks-for-dealing-with-black-swans-and-benefiting-from-them.Elegant,-startling,-and-universal-in-its-applications The-Black-Swan will-change-the-way-you-look-at-the-world.-Taleb-is-a-vastly-entertaining-writer,-with-wit,-irreverence,-and-unusual-stories-to-tell.-He-has-a-polymathic-command-of-subjects-ranging-from-cognitive-science-to-business-to-probability-theory.The-Black-Swan is-a-landmark-book-–-itself-a-black-swan.The-book-also-contains-a-4-page-glossary;-19-pages-of-notes;-and,-a-28-page-bibliography-in-addition-to-an-index.