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3.71 AVERAGE
3.71 AVERAGE
Not a bad book by any means, and the central thesis is certainly one worth discussing. However, as noted by multiple reviewers, it's extremely repetitive and the author is absolutely insufferable. I would happily pay far more than the cost of this book to insure that I'm never trapped in a conversation with him (not that he'd ever stoop to talking to someone as lowly as me). Took a lot of willpower for me to power through to the end.
Boy am I glad to be done with this book - it was pretty repetitive. But still interesting, and I LOVED all of his grumpy tirades against economists, mathematicians, etc.
I really truly wanted to hate this book. The author is a ridiculous namedropper and possibly misogynistic. But I could not. This book stays with me. I reference it in conversation, I write it on the board in classes I teach. I don't know if I buy the fractal approach to randomness, but there is something so much more important in this book's core: The future is full of monsters and the present is full of things we have no way of fully understanding, so we guess, and there is always always always a chance we are wrong. We exist in a universe of beautiful, terrible, unfixable uncertainty. And for this lesson I am grateful.
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
After finishing this book, you won't see the bell curve the same way. Sometimes its overbearing tone is too much, but it delivers interesting content.
informative
reflective
slow-paced
The book is very heavy. The idea itself is very interesting and out of the box. However, in the central part of this book, its get very technical (a lot of statistics and logic). I finished this book quite exhausted. I do not reccomend this book to anyone unless you really would like to read something technical and out of the box.
challenging
informative
I wanted to be able to give this book a better review. I like the ideas, I like Taleb's way of thinking. But the book's structure and his writing style are off-putting. I feel this needed significant editing and restructuring - it was a slog to read. There are sections whose only purpose seems to be to demonstrate he is well-read and has done his research - these would have been better summarized. There are parenthetical asides that interrupt the flow. There are analogies that are not clearly expressed.
In all, I felt frustrated reading it as the Black Swan concept is fascinating.
In all, I felt frustrated reading it as the Black Swan concept is fascinating.
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced