Black swans

Skybird · 11-20-08, 03:52 PM

I'm in the final chapter of a book by Nassim N. Taleb, "The Black Swan". It was a very interesting, mind-reviving reading, with both a solid insight into the author's matter, and an easy, entertaining style of narration, so that the text really pulls you through smoothly and without you much resisting by yourself. The book is about the impact of the random event and the importance of the unpredictable for creating the reality and the world we experience, and explains why the author is sceptical about too much effort put into trying to categorize a world into a structured order when the world probably is too complex anyway to be predicted and understood.

The reason why I found this book so entertaining, and chuckled very often, is simply because it made me thinking about myself a lot. I have to admit that I am somewhat vulnerable to attempts of trying to put the reality i perceive into too tight an order, it oftehn works nicely - until just the next time the strategy fails. So where I chuckled, I did not so much chuckle about an anecdote in the book, but about myself.

I let Wikipedia do the job of giving details about the author, his background, and the book in question. Highly recommended, and if you know a person interested in this kind of literature, maybe a good christmas present!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nassim_Taleb
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_Swan_(book)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_swan_theory

11-20-08, 03:52 PM	#1
Skybird Soaring Join Date: Sep 2001 Location: the mental asylum named Germany Posts: 42,620 Downloads: 10 Uploads: 0	Black swans I'm in the final chapter of a book by Nassim N. Taleb, "The Black Swan". It was a very interesting, mind-reviving reading, with both a solid insight into the author's matter, and an easy, entertaining style of narration, so that the text really pulls you through smoothly and without you much resisting by yourself. The book is about the impact of the random event and the importance of the unpredictable for creating the reality and the world we experience, and explains why the author is sceptical about too much effort put into trying to categorize a world into a structured order when the world probably is too complex anyway to be predicted and understood. The reason why I found this book so entertaining, and chuckled very often, is simply because it made me thinking about myself a lot. I have to admit that I am somewhat vulnerable to attempts of trying to put the reality i perceive into too tight an order, it oftehn works nicely - until just the next time the strategy fails. So where I chuckled, I did not so much chuckle about an anecdote in the book, but about myself. I let Wikipedia do the job of giving details about the author, his background, and the book in question. Highly recommended, and if you know a person interested in this kind of literature, maybe a good christmas present! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nassim_Taleb http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_Swan_(book) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_swan_theory __________________ If you feel nuts, consult an expert. Last edited by Skybird; 11-20-08 at 03:53 PM.