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A review by dknippling
Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
4.0
A look at how probability fries our brains, from a former Wall Street options trader.
This was a fun read, albeit with a couple of spots where the author switches into math-speak and assumes that you followed him from conversational/philosophical English. Humanity isn't all that smart on a practical level, and in denial about how not-smart we are: nothing new there. But the logic behind exposing that not-smartness is fun and telling. I was often fooled by the points he was making, until he threw back the veil. (The diagnosis example was the ouchiest one; I had to read that on several times to follow along. D'oh!)
Recommended if you like business books, but find that a lot of business books leave you inspired but spinning your wheels--recommended if you like Malcolm Gladwell and the 4-Hour Workweek, that sort of thing.
This was a fun read, albeit with a couple of spots where the author switches into math-speak and assumes that you followed him from conversational/philosophical English. Humanity isn't all that smart on a practical level, and in denial about how not-smart we are: nothing new there. But the logic behind exposing that not-smartness is fun and telling. I was often fooled by the points he was making, until he threw back the veil. (The diagnosis example was the ouchiest one; I had to read that on several times to follow along. D'oh!)
Recommended if you like business books, but find that a lot of business books leave you inspired but spinning your wheels--recommended if you like Malcolm Gladwell and the 4-Hour Workweek, that sort of thing.