Most of the criticisms of Taleb and this book seem sensible: - His confidence sometimes seems to reach the level of condescending arrogance. - With a wave of the hand, he dismisses those he disagrees with, even Nobel prize winners. And perhaps he oversimplifies their positions in order to argue with their straw-man shadows. - He often circles around his points without winding up finally making his points clear. Is this how a supposedly street-smart guy should talk? - His frequent... more info
Not a history of black swan events:
I think I expected something different, like a presentation of various black swan type events. The author, comments and speaks and comments in an essay style which I found dissapointing. Same valid for his other book: Fooled by Randomness.I think readers will get a better deal if they read "Extraordinary Illusions and Madness of the Crowds" as well as most of the shareholder letters posted on gurufocus.com.
Open your mind:
I must recognize that through the easy and entertaining Mr Taleb's style, I have adquired a wider vision of how we, as human beings, mostly and unreasonably make predictions.
300 pages would have been enough (it has 400, at least in spanish edition).
Nevertheless, I highly recommend this book. Open you mind and have fun!
Interesting...if you can get past his enormous ego:
It's too bad Taleb's ego is louder than his thesis. While he puts forth many interesting and insightful concepts and thoughts, the price one must pay to find them amongst the egocentric drivel that fills most of the pages makes this read hardly worth the effort. I can't help but think that the basic arguments from such a pretentious elitist could only be hot air. It's hard to take him seriously.
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