The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable

New
Paperback
2010
$13.44

Nassim Nicholas Taleb's phenomenal international bestseller The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable 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? What can Catherine the Great's lovers tell us about probability? 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). Funny, quirky and thought-provoking...confirms his status as a guru for every would-be Damien Hirst, George Soros and aspirant despot. (John Cornwell, Sunday Times). Idiosyncratically brilliant. (Niall Ferguson, Sunday Telegraph). Great fun...brash, stubborn, entertaining, opinionated, curious, cajoling. (Stephen J. Dubner, Co-Author of Freakonomics).

Synopsis

Nassim Nicholas Taleb's phenomenal international bestseller The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable 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? What can Catherine the Great's lovers tell us about probability? 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). "Funny, quirky and thought-provoking...confirms his status as a guru for every would-be Damien Hirst, George Soros and aspirant despot." (John Cornwell, Sunday Times). "Idiosyncratically brilliant." (Niall Ferguson, Sunday Telegraph). "Great fun...brash, stubborn, entertaining, opinionated, curious, cajoling. " (Stephen J. Dubner, Co-Author of Freakonomics).

$13.44

Save:$0.63 (4%)

Quantity

20+ in stock

More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 394
Edition: 02
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 28 Feb 2010
ISBN 10: 0141034599
ISBN 13: 9780141034591

Media Reviews

Great fun ... brash, stubborn, entertaining, opinionated, curious, cajoling * Freakonomics *
An idiosyncratically brilliant new book * Sunday Telegraph *
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 *
Confirms his status as a guru for every would-be Damien Hirst, George Soros and aspirant despot * Sunday Times *
In the tradition of The Wisdom of Crowds and The Tipping Point * Time *

Author Bio

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.