Again, I'm astounded by the quality of Taleb's writing. His theory is both scientific and poetic, his insights are always useful and reflect what I often experience in my life...the one thing that really impressed me in this book, however, was his ability to tell a great story. That's something I had forgotten about. Before I can truly judge this book, however, I do think I need to read it a second time. Taleb always has sharp provocative ideas, but they do need to be reflected on and digested.

This is the best book I have read all year, closely followed by his other book, The Black Swan. Fooled by Randomness is one of that select group of books that changes your mind entirely. Once I read it I could never look at the world the same again, nor could I take my old assumptions for granted.We are so accustomed to looking at the world and seeing patterns that we do not always understand that we may be seeing randomness and imposing a pattern where none belongs. Taleb talks about the variou...

You can't learn anything from this book; it's just a rant. The author's message is an incessant din of, 'I'm smart. They're stupid'"trading rooms were populated by people ..devoid of any introspection, flat as a pancake..." p28"these scientists ... devoid of the smallest bit of practical intelligence" p 30The author likes the word 'devoid'."I was saved from the conversation of MBAs." "but i could not conceal my disrespect ... as he could not make out the nature of my conversation" p.31"a journal...

Renowned statistician George Box once said, “All models are wrong, but some are useful.” The author of Fooled by Randomness is all over the first part of this statement, but apparently doesn’t consider it part of his job as an iconoclast to say anything about the second. Taleb goes to great lengths to point out how some of the original assumptions made in investments and finance have blown up in people’s faces. Yes, unusual events do happen more often than a normal distribution suggests. Yes, re...

Using his trademark aphoristic bent, Friedrich Nietzsche wrote: “Arrogance in persons of merit affronts us more than arrogance in those without merit: merit itself is an affront”. I’ve come to realize that some people find Nassim Taleb’s arrogance quite repugnant, but, personally, I find it rather charming. I suspect that the same people who find Taleb’s arrogance off-putting are the people who wish they possessed a shred of his erudition. Nietzsche was certainly on to something; it’s hard to av...

I'm not certain if it was this book I read or Black Swan by the same author. Importantly I was not convinced by the blurbs or the reviews that there is any great significance in which one, if any, of these two books you may read.It is one of those books with an interesting premise that grows steadily less interesting as you read. And as I read I had the growing feeling that the book could have been conveniently summarised in a dozen and a half bullet points with a few anecdotes tacked on for amu...

One of my business school professors raved about this book. I expected to get an entertaining and informative investment professional's take on how our irrational tendencies keep us from applying basic probabilities that would help us make better decisions.Instead, this book read like a pretentious, ranting diary. In the introduction, the author brags that he ignored nearly all of the suggested changes his book editors made (he labels book editors along with journalists, MBAs, and most social sc...

Don't Be FooledThe author is a Legend in his Own Mind, and he reminds the reader of his brilliance every few pages.I'd rather have a waxen image of me stuck repeatedly in my tiny black eyes with voodoo pins than read another book by this man.

This is the first book of INCERTO, the most polite, the simplest, and the best to start. I feel like I should read the remaining four(at least for now) again, and I'd love to.Nassim uses a great analogy, so simple that child can understand, and explain a quite complex problem with statistics. He also makes some laugh at people that use statistics but can't understand it, this makes this book even more readable. The best part is - there is no ghostwriter or editor, all the thoughts are said by th...

This book is a lot of painful reading for little reward, as there was nothing truly remarkable or revelatory about Taleb's insights. Most of what can be said of this book has already been said by other reviewers on GoodReads, so I will just briefly recap here: he is incredibly unlikeable, and infuses the book with anecdote and a general disdain for most of humanity, while exemplifying many of the characteristics he rails against. His insights will not be news to anyone who has read even a little...

"Expect the unexpected" -- an aphorism that almost completely summarises the book. Cliches exist for a reason, but 196 pages later I feel the point has been well made.Taleb is a stock market trader. As a trader, he believes that there is no way in general to predict the stock market -- that there are so many variables that the resulting stock price is indistinguishable from pure noise. Unfortunately, his profession is filled with people who believe that they *can* predict the market. In fact, so...

The author says right at the beginning in his 20+ page preface that the book is intentionally left unstructured so that it may resemble the flow of his thoughts as and when they popped up. And that I believe is the problem. He seems to go around in circles repeating his ideas and thoughts, coming back to the same points, pulling in unrelated anecdotes while already inside one, leaving thoughts hanging without any form of closure, and generally ensuring you end up doing exactly what he says you s...

A few insights from Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Nicholas Taleb:• People often mistake luck and randomness for skill and logic.• Human brain was not built to make forecasts or think in probabilities.• Just because it hasn’t happened before, doesn’t mean that it won’t happen any time. • Emotions can overwhelm any capacity for rational thought.• Reduce exposure to noise – newspapers, daily stock prices changes, television, etc.• We are genetically poor at understanding the impact of rare events....