A set of 2 reviews of the 2007 book written by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
In this book, Taleb (a scholar, statistician, and former options trader.) introduces the concept of the “black swan,” which refers to highly improbable events that have a severe impact and are often mistakenly rationalized in hindsight.
As I often do, I purchased this book as both an audiobook and an e-book. Afterward, it was placed on the recommended reading list for our critical thinking course at SBA CANADA.
The concepts and ideas were well laid out, and the writing was entertaining. I have to say that the reader’s tone in the audiobook annoyed me terribly. I kept thinking that he was obviously convinced of his own massive intelligence. This was a little at odds with the message of the book, which is to remind the reader to have a little humility when explaining what has happened.
Despite that, this clearly is an important book in my view. In fact, it’s so important I felt that it was better to look at 2 of the key concepts separately.
The first involves hindsight bias and the difference between experts and what he calls ‘empty suits’.
The second relates to scalability. While the first is, in my view, pretty much spot on. The second is only mostly right. More about that in the second review.