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3.72 AVERAGE
3.72 AVERAGE
slow-paced
First, a major red flag for this book, and the author, is that Nassim says autistic people have no capacity for empathy. This is an objectively false stereotype, yet he states it as fact and inserts it when it isn't even necessary to make his point. This was the instance that really stood out to me, but there were a few sweeping statements made in this book that were not backed up and are unlikely to be true, as well as some that contradicted earlier ideas, which is something he attacks other people for, so worth mentioning.
While there are some interesting points touched on in this book, they could pretty much all be boiled down to common sense (Nassim also acknowledges this, so it isn't news). That's not to say it's completely unhelpful to point out, reiterate and reframe common sense, but there are probably much better means of delivery for that than this book.
Nassim jumps around a lot in a way that makes it frustrating to read. He also just has a bad attitude; He is extremely arrogant and petty throughout the whole thing. It didn't need to be a full length book by any means, and it was mostly unpleasant to read. I honestly think this is the worst book I've ever finished.
While there are some interesting points touched on in this book, they could pretty much all be boiled down to common sense (Nassim also acknowledges this, so it isn't news). That's not to say it's completely unhelpful to point out, reiterate and reframe common sense, but there are probably much better means of delivery for that than this book.
Nassim jumps around a lot in a way that makes it frustrating to read. He also just has a bad attitude; He is extremely arrogant and petty throughout the whole thing. It didn't need to be a full length book by any means, and it was mostly unpleasant to read. I honestly think this is the worst book I've ever finished.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Bullying, War
informative
slow-paced
Funny and interesting but gets a little tedious towards the end. I don't believe it needed to be so long to explain the idea of the black swan, and overall it lacked a practical application of the concept. However, I did greatly enjoy the sense of humour and how it was written.
challenging
informative
reflective
fast-paced
Clevere auteur met zware topics. Lichtjes arrogant geschreven maar zeker een auteur waarvan meerdere boeken gelezen kunnen worden.
A fascinating read that unravels the extent of randomness in the world. What you do not know is as important as what you know. Your life will the affected by events that can't be predicted. Brace yourselves. Concepts of extremistan and mediocristan are beautiful and unravel the extent of non linearity in the real world. It doesn't fit in the standard 'bell' curve. Taleb draws from Kahneman and Amos ideas that are put out in the book - "Thinking , Fast and Slow."
Worth a read if you want to understand how the world works ( and also how it doesn't)
Worth a read if you want to understand how the world works ( and also how it doesn't)
challenging
funny
informative
reflective
slow-paced
This is a dense one, but worth a look, particularly if you’re into behavioral economics and probability statistics. Taleb articulately considers the effect of highly unlikely events in financial systems, politics, and personal behavior patterns. It’s smartly written, exhaustively researched, and apropos; after the financial meltdown of 2008, it’s about time that the traditional notions of financial probability get a facelift. It’s taken me a couple months to get about 100 pages in—despite its intrigue, this one doesn’t exactly fit into the category of breezy summer reading—but I sure I’ll stick it out to the end. After this, I want to read Taleb’s earlier book, Fooled by Randomness.
“… erudition … signals genuine intellectual curiosity. It accompanies an open mind and the desire to probe the ideas of others. Above all, an erudite can be dissatisfied with his own knowledge, and such dissatisfaction is a wonderful shield against Platonicity, the simplifications of the five-minute manager, or the philistinism of the overspecialized scholar.”
—Nassim Nicholas Taleb, the Black Swan, p. 48.
Taleb briefly speaks of the importance of erudition, and then spends the rest of the book doubling down on it without directly saying so. Genuine intellectual curiosity? You must live in this space in order to genuinely question the statements and predictions by generally accepted “experts.” An open mind and a desire to probe the ideas of others? Absolutely necessary in order to suspend belief in the bell curve and allow for an exploration of alternate ideas concerning what you think you know. Dissatisfaction with one’s own knowledge? In order to know that you don’t know what you don’t know, you have to be willing to step out of the intellectual comfort of what you do know and accept that there may be something far more worthwhile in what you don’t know. Which, of course, circles back to exploration.
This book is dense as hell, and well worth the read. It lays out, front and center, the simple fact that almost anyone claiming to know anything about randomness and probability knows very little, or nothing, about either. It’s a sad reality that everyone is playing at knowing anything at all without actually knowing anything at all. But we wouldn’t know it until we were dissatisfied with our perceived knowing and willing to explore beyond it. Growth is a matter of finding comfort in discomfort, and Taleb’s Black Swans all speak to discomfort for the person striving to thrive in Platonicity, but for whom will never seek to find comfort in them. However, if you’ve ever wanted to learn to thrive in uncertainty but lacked any real understanding of how, this book is a better place to start than most.
—Nassim Nicholas Taleb, the Black Swan, p. 48.
Taleb briefly speaks of the importance of erudition, and then spends the rest of the book doubling down on it without directly saying so. Genuine intellectual curiosity? You must live in this space in order to genuinely question the statements and predictions by generally accepted “experts.” An open mind and a desire to probe the ideas of others? Absolutely necessary in order to suspend belief in the bell curve and allow for an exploration of alternate ideas concerning what you think you know. Dissatisfaction with one’s own knowledge? In order to know that you don’t know what you don’t know, you have to be willing to step out of the intellectual comfort of what you do know and accept that there may be something far more worthwhile in what you don’t know. Which, of course, circles back to exploration.
This book is dense as hell, and well worth the read. It lays out, front and center, the simple fact that almost anyone claiming to know anything about randomness and probability knows very little, or nothing, about either. It’s a sad reality that everyone is playing at knowing anything at all without actually knowing anything at all. But we wouldn’t know it until we were dissatisfied with our perceived knowing and willing to explore beyond it. Growth is a matter of finding comfort in discomfort, and Taleb’s Black Swans all speak to discomfort for the person striving to thrive in Platonicity, but for whom will never seek to find comfort in them. However, if you’ve ever wanted to learn to thrive in uncertainty but lacked any real understanding of how, this book is a better place to start than most.
informative
slow-paced
Touches on a ton of deeply interesting ideas. The first half is a strange experience, as he argues against the methods by which he is arguing (This book has a lot of self-reference). It gets more repetitive near the end.
This book was more of a review of several concepts in probability, risk taking and evaluation, decision making, philosophy of science and some general straightforward concepts in research methods. NNT really is more of a "popularizer" than an innovator of any of such ideas. But some things are just quite clear pseudoscience. That was weird. You criticize those that fall into scientific and methodological mishaps, then casually disregard much of the same scientific rigor? How come?!
The writing style was not very good. Disjointed and reads almost like a completely independent group of mini-articles sometimes. The way of presenting and discussing much of what was included often followed a hyperbolic, self-centered, and condescending tone. No clear reason why that was, but it was very clear in some parts of the book. So there’s that. Fun ideas and very interesting take on some things, but nauseating ego jumping out of the text every now and then. Would have been better if the author had a better writing style, maintained a grip on their ego, and used a fair approach when discussing ideas.
One issue was the ubiquitous wide-brush conclusions that were not based on research. Which made a lot of his condescending remarks quite self-contradictory.
The Black Swan book was better than Skin in the game book by NNT, as the latter had quite a bit less useful meat but much more condescending ranting.
A great point he mentioned though was that simple statistical calculations and even sometimes intuitive ones, may perform equally, or even outperform, more advanced and complicated statistical approaches. Which speaks to a lot of the science that is currently being produced in many fields, and other than the ones that he mentioned in this book would be nutritional research.
Although this book included less ranting and hurled insults left and right, it still included some. It's interesting why he insisted on doing that in his books. As a reader and someone who is interested in the subject matter, I have zero interest in who he holds a grudge against or who he likes and dislikes. Including them in his books was just plain stupid (to use his approach).
The writing style was not very good. Disjointed and reads almost like a completely independent group of mini-articles sometimes. The way of presenting and discussing much of what was included often followed a hyperbolic, self-centered, and condescending tone. No clear reason why that was, but it was very clear in some parts of the book. So there’s that. Fun ideas and very interesting take on some things, but nauseating ego jumping out of the text every now and then. Would have been better if the author had a better writing style, maintained a grip on their ego, and used a fair approach when discussing ideas.
One issue was the ubiquitous wide-brush conclusions that were not based on research. Which made a lot of his condescending remarks quite self-contradictory.
The Black Swan book was better than Skin in the game book by NNT, as the latter had quite a bit less useful meat but much more condescending ranting.
A great point he mentioned though was that simple statistical calculations and even sometimes intuitive ones, may perform equally, or even outperform, more advanced and complicated statistical approaches. Which speaks to a lot of the science that is currently being produced in many fields, and other than the ones that he mentioned in this book would be nutritional research.
Although this book included less ranting and hurled insults left and right, it still included some. It's interesting why he insisted on doing that in his books. As a reader and someone who is interested in the subject matter, I have zero interest in who he holds a grudge against or who he likes and dislikes. Including them in his books was just plain stupid (to use his approach).