The Black Swan : The Impact of the Highly Improbable

Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s phenomenal international bestseller The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable shows us how to stop trying to predict everything – and take advantage of uncertainty. What have the invention of the wheel, Pompeii, the Wall Street Crash, Harry Potter and the internet got in common? Why are all forecasters con-artists? What can Catherine the Great’s lovers tell us about probability? Why should you never run for a train or read a newspaper? This book is all about Black Swans: the random events that underlie our lives, from bestsellers to world disasters. Their impact is huge; they’re impossible to predict; yet after they happen we always try to rationalize them. ‘Taleb is a bouncy and even exhilarating guide … I came to relish what he said, and even develop a sneaking affection for him as a person’ Will Self, Independent on Sunday ‘He leaps like some superhero of the mind’ Boyd Tonkin, Independent ‘Funny, quirky and thought-provoking … confirms his status as a guru for every would-be Damien Hirst, George Soros and aspirant despot’ John Cornwell, Sunday Times ‘Idiosyncratically brilliant’ Niall Ferguson, Sunday Telegraph ‘Great fun … brash, stubborn, entertaining, opinionated, curious, cajoling’ Stephen J. Dubner, Co-Author of Freakonomics