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expiredphoinix | Staff posted Dec 31, 2025 8:47 AM

$1.99: The Black Swan: Second Edition: The Impact of the Highly Improbable (Incerto Book 2) (eBook) by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

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Previous Frontpage Deal at $2.00 with 22 Deal Score and 6 comments.

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AuthorNassim Nicholas Taleb
PublisherRandom House
Publication dateMay 4, 2010
Print length672 pages

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The most influential book of the past seventy-five years: a groundbreaking exploration of everything we know about what we don't know, now with a new section called "On Robustness and Fragility."

A black swan is a highly improbable event with three principal characteristics: It is unpredictable; it carries a massive impact; and, after the fact, we concoct an explanation that makes it appear less random, and more predictable, than it was. The astonishing success of Google was a black swan; so was 9/11. For Nassim Nicholas Taleb, black swans underlie almost everything about our world, from the rise of religions to events in our own personal lives.

Why do we not acknowledge the phenomenon of black swans until after they occur? Part of the answer, according to Taleb, is that humans are hardwired to learn specifics when they should be focused on generalities. We concentrate on things we already know and time and time again fail to take into consideration what we don't know. We are, therefore, unable to truly estimate opportunities, too vulnerable to the impulse to simplify, narrate, and categorize, and not open enough to rewarding those who can imagine the "impossible."

For years, Taleb has studied how we fool ourselves into thinking we know more than we actually do. We restrict our thinking to the irrelevant and inconsequential, while large events continue to surprise us and shape our world. In this revelatory book, Taleb will change the way you look at the world, and this second edition features a new philosophical and empirical essay, "On Robustness and Fragility," which offers tools to navigate and exploit a Black Swan world.

Taleb is a vastly entertaining writer, with wit, irreverence, and unusual stories to tell. He has a polymathic command of subjects ranging from cognitive science to business to probability theory. Elegant, startling, and universal in its applications, The Black Swan is a landmark book—itself a black swan.

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Previous Frontpage Deal at $2.00 with 22 Deal Score and 6 comments.

Available Retailers:
AuthorNassim Nicholas Taleb
PublisherRandom House
Publication dateMay 4, 2010
Print length672 pages

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The most influential book of the past seventy-five years: a groundbreaking exploration of everything we know about what we don't know, now with a new section called "On Robustness and Fragility."

A black swan is a highly improbable event with three principal characteristics: It is unpredictable; it carries a massive impact; and, after the fact, we concoct an explanation that makes it appear less random, and more predictable, than it was. The astonishing success of Google was a black swan; so was 9/11. For Nassim Nicholas Taleb, black swans underlie almost everything about our world, from the rise of religions to events in our own personal lives.

Why do we not acknowledge the phenomenon of black swans until after they occur? Part of the answer, according to Taleb, is that humans are hardwired to learn specifics when they should be focused on generalities. We concentrate on things we already know and time and time again fail to take into consideration what we don't know. We are, therefore, unable to truly estimate opportunities, too vulnerable to the impulse to simplify, narrate, and categorize, and not open enough to rewarding those who can imagine the "impossible."

For years, Taleb has studied how we fool ourselves into thinking we know more than we actually do. We restrict our thinking to the irrelevant and inconsequential, while large events continue to surprise us and shape our world. In this revelatory book, Taleb will change the way you look at the world, and this second edition features a new philosophical and empirical essay, "On Robustness and Fragility," which offers tools to navigate and exploit a Black Swan world.

Taleb is a vastly entertaining writer, with wit, irreverence, and unusual stories to tell. He has a polymathic command of subjects ranging from cognitive science to business to probability theory. Elegant, startling, and universal in its applications, The Black Swan is a landmark book—itself a black swan.

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My other deals

https://www.amazon.com/Black-Swan...dsrc=staff

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4 Comments

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Dec 31, 2025 3:04 PM
276 Comments
Joined Jan 2016
Buck_FlandersDec 31, 2025 3:04 PM
276 Posts
This book was a waste of my time and is written by an absolute a hole
2
Dec 31, 2025 7:50 PM
106 Comments
Joined Apr 2010
sixtomarceloDec 31, 2025 7:50 PM
106 Posts
Quote from Buck_Flanders :
This book was a waste of my time and is written by an absolute a hole
I agree with him being an a hole, but the content albeit not original is the proper mindset for thinking about opportunity asymmetry. The Fat Tony part worked for me as most owners are him and the "intellectuals" work for him.
Dec 31, 2025 8:12 PM
435 Comments
Joined Dec 2007
jlirwDec 31, 2025 8:12 PM
435 Posts
Quote from Buck_Flanders :
This book was a waste of my time and is written by an absolute a hole
The writer came across as absolutely insufferable
Dec 31, 2025 9:17 PM
185 Comments
Joined Sep 2014
chetsteadmanDec 31, 2025 9:17 PM
185 Posts
I love reading "smart books," but I refuse to read Nassim. Insufferable person.

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