The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
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If you have walked into a Starbucks within the last six weeks or so, you have most likely seen this book prominently on display. The book explores the phenomenon of “black swans”, or, events that occur that are unpredictable and how they impact our society.
Some of the events that are explored in this book-the terrorists attacks of 9/11, the explosion of the Google phenomenon amongst other such events.
From the book jacket, it would seem as though the book would be interesting, even for the layperson with even the most minor interest in economics, mathematical theories or philosophy. The book is a tad dull, but mostly readable-especially with the handy glossary at the back of the book. However, the last section of the book dealing with statistics is especially difficult to read (I finally gave up). I also found Taleb to be pretentious and unfortunately at many times throughout the book his personality shown through-which made the book to be unenjoyable.
Unless you are very interested in this theory and don’t mind having the feeling of being talked down upon I would recommend it. If not, perhaps pass this one.
We don’t have Starbucks where I live. :o(