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Interviews | October 6, 2009

Jill Owens: IMG The Powells.com Interview with Margaret Atwood



margaretatwoodIn her 2003 novel Oryx and Crake, Margaret Atwood describes a future after humanity had been almost entirely wiped out by a plague. Jimmy, aka Snowman, lives... Continue »
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    The Year of the Flood

    Margaret Atwood

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Black Swan (07 Edition)

by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Black Swan (07 Edition) Cover
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Synopses & Reviews

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Publisher Comments:

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. Now, in this revelatory book, Taleb explains everything we know about what we don't know. He offers surprisingly simple tricks for dealing with black swans and benefiting from them.

Elegant, startling, and universal in its applications The Black Swan will change the way you look at the 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. The Black Swan is a landmark book — itself a black swan.

Review:

"A humanist at heart, Mr. Taleb ponders not only the effect of Black Swans but also the reason we have so much trouble acknowledging their existence." Wall Street Journal

Review:

"When The Black Swan tries to expand from finance into a general theory of history, it falters further owing to lack of evidence." New York Times

Review:

Taleb's excellent book...effectively exposes many common illusions." Library Journal

Review:

"Elegant, startling, and universal in its applications The Black Swan will change the way you look at the world." Booklist

About the Author

Nassim Nicholas Taleb has devoted his life to immersing himself in problems of luck, uncertainty, probability, and knowledge. Part literary essayist, part empiricist, part no-nonsense mathematical trader, he is currently taking a break as Dean's Professor in the Sciences of Uncertainty at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. His last book, the bestseller Fooled by Randomness, has been published in nineteen languages. Taleb lives mostly in New York.

What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 1 comment:
aunt dracula, September 28, 2008 (view all comments by aunt dracula)
This book presents some compelling arguments for changing the way we typically think about large-impact events. N.N. Taleb explains how certain ways of characterizing events may lead to flawed conclusions. If you can get past Taleb's sometimes overwhelming arrogance, this book has a lot to offer.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9781400063512
Subtitle:
The Impact of the Highly Improbable
Author:
Taleb, Nassim Nicholas
Publisher:
Random House
Subject:
General
Subject:
Forecasting
Subject:
Uncertainty (information theory)
Subject:
Management - General
Publication Date:
April 2007
Binding:
Hardcover
Language:
English
Illustrations:
Y
Pages:
366
Dimensions:
9.30x6.10x1.30 in. 1.45 lbs.

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