The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable
by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
List Price:
Our Price: $14.87
You Save: $12.08 (45%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $8.18 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Nassim Nicholas TalebEdition: Hardcover
Published: 2007-04-17
ISBN: 1400063515
Number of pages: 400
Publisher: Random House
Book Reviews of The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable
Book Review: A fine antidote to gullibility
Summary: 5 Stars
According to critic Harold Bloom, Hamlet's predicament is not "that he thinks too much" but rather that "he thinks too well," being ultimately "unable to rest in illusions of any kind." The same could be said for philosopher, essayist and trader Nassim Nicholas Taleb, who finds something rotten in misguided yet supremely confident investment gurus, traders, hedge fund managers, Wall Street bankers, M.B.A.s, CEOs, Nobel-winning economists and others who claim that they can predict the future and explain the past. Like everyone else, says Taleb, these so-called "experts" fail to appreciate "black swans": highly consequential but unlikely events that render predictions and standard explanations worse than worthless. Taleb's style is personal and literary, but his heterodox insights are rigorous (if sometimes jolted by authorial filigree). This combination makes for a thrilling, disturbing, contentious and unforgettable book on chance and randomness. While Taleb offers strong medicine some readers may find too bitter at times, we prescribe it to anyone who wants a powerful inoculation against gullibility.
Business & Investing Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Audiobooks on Cassette
- Audiobooks on CD
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- e-Books
- Engineering
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Medicine
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Reading Summer 08!`
Searching for God Knows Whatby Donald Miller
Thomas Nelson; Published: 2004-10-13; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.49
Price in other shops:
Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Timeby Greg Mortenson, David Oliver Relin
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2007-01-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.15
Price in other shops:
Born On A Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savantby Daniel Tammet
Free Press; Published: 2007-10-16; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.45
Price in other shops:
One for the Money (Stephanie Plum, No. 1)by Janet Evanovich
St. Martin's Griffin; Published: 2006-06-13; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.87
Price in other shops:
Nineteen Minutesby Jodi Picoult
Washington Square Press; Published: 2008-02-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.95
Price in other shops:
This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsessionby Daniel J. Levitin
Plume; Published: 2007-08-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.17
Price in other shops:
The Yiddish Policemen's Union: A Novel (P.S.)by Michael Chabon
Harper Perennial; Published: 2008-05-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.85
Price in other shops:
The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbableby Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Random House; Published: 2007-04-17; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $15.17
Price in other shops:
The Spellman Files: A Novelby Lisa Lutz
Simon & Schuster; Published: 2008-02-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.96
Price in other shops:
The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possibleby A. J. Jacobs
Simon & Schuster; Published: 2007-10-09; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $7.84
Price in other shops:
Similar books summaries and other product reviews
The Dhandho Investor: The Low - Risk Value Method to High Returnsby Mohnish Pabrai
Wiley; Published: 2007-04-06; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.85
Price in other shops:
More Than You Know: Finding Financial Wisdom in Unconventional Places (Updated and Expanded)by Michael J. Mauboussin
Columbia University Press; Published: 2007-09-26; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.72
Price in other shops:
Hedge Hunters: Hedge Fund Masters on the Rewards, the Risk, and the Reckoningby Katherine Burton
Bloomberg Press; Published: 2007-11-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $16.67
Price in other shops:
The Misbehavior of Marketsby Benoit Mandelbrot, Richard L. Hudson
Published: 2004-08-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $30.50
The Panic of 1907: Lessons Learned from the Market's Perfect Stormby Robert F. Bruner, Sean D. Carr
Wiley; Published: 2007-08-31; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $16.03
Price in other shops:
Super Crunchers: Why Thinking-by-Numbers Is the New Way to Be Smartby Ian Ayres
Bantam; Published: 2007-08-28; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $12.57
Price in other shops:
Capital Ideas Evolvingby Peter L. Bernstein
Wiley; Published: 2007-05-04; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.48
Price in other shops:
The Halo Effect: ... and the Eight Other Business Delusions That Deceive Managersby Phil Rosenzweig
Free Press; Published: 2007-02-06; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $8.80
Price in other shops:
A Demon of Our Own Design: Markets, Hedge Funds, and the Perils of Financial Innovationby Richard Bookstaber
Wiley; Published: 2007-04-06; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.89
Price in other shops:
Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Marketsby Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Random House Trade Paperbacks; Published: 2005-08-23; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.95
Price in other shops: