The Black Swan

I find it interesting that this forum's "Featured Author" is Nassim Taleb, author of the Black Swan.

It was highly recommended to me considering my background in finance, investments and economics. I purchased it around a year ago and was never able to finish it. It was difficult to follow as I felt there was no real flow to the explanations of his ideas. I don't know if it's a language barrier or a difference in the way he explains core concepts and the way I interpret his explanations. Either way, it sits on my shelf as a constant reminder to an unfinished book. I keep thinking maybe there's more to it then I understand. I think the core concept of the book is fascinating.

Has anyone finished the book and have some comments on their interpretation? Can anyone relate?

Read his first book, Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Market. I think it explores the authors' core ideas much better than The Black Swan, which was pretty much incoherent gibberish from what I remember of it.

ooh ooh pick me pick me lol His books are profound I like them, I'm no expert but in a nutshell black swan is about big random events that are rare but happen unexpectedly like the market crash or 9/11 people think that events like these are predictable when they really arent. love this most people live lives trying to avoid black swans like a turkey that gets chosen one day to get its head chopped off. I liked a personal story about the author in Malcolm Gladwells book forgot which one...about how he based his prediction on the opposite that a black swan will happen... I found that is akin to living hoping prince charming or a soul mate will come (a black swan event) the opposite of avoiding the event is to live to hope for it basically hes talking about these extreme events and how random it all really is theres more to it and though i cant use technical lingo, this is one of the things I took away from it, it isnt an easy read, but I found it to be entertaining.

Gladwell wrote an article about Nassim Taleb for the New Yorker. It was an interesting read.

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