The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable

by NassimNicholasTaleb (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  2007

  $4.76

  Elegant, startling, and universal in its applications, The Black Swan is a concept that will change the way you look at the world. Black Swans underlie almost everything, from the rise of religions, to events in our own personal lives. A Black Swan is a highly improbable event with three principle 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. And why do we always ignore the phenomenon of Black Swans until after they occur? As Nassim Nicholas Taleb reveals, we are hard-wired not to truly estimate risk, too vulnerable to the impulse to simplify, narrate, and categorize and not open enough to rewarding those who can imagine the 'impossible'. In this revelatory book, Taleb explains everything we know about what we don't know, and shows us how to face the world.

• Used

  paperback
  

  $11.49

  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).

• New

  paperback
  

  $13.65

  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).