Black Swan, The: The Impact of the Highly Improbable: Second Edition: With a New Section: "On Robustness and Fragility"
Written by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Narrated by Joe Ochman
4.5/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this audiobook
The Black Swan is a stand-alone book in Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s landmark Incerto series, an investigation of opacity, luck, uncertainty, probability, human error, risk, and decision-making in a world we don’t understand. The other audiobooks in the series are Fooled by Randomness, Antifragile, Skin in the Game, and The Bed of Procrustes.
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 audiobook, Taleb explains everything we know about what we don’t know, 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.
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 audiobook — itself a black swan.
Related to Black Swan, The
Related audiobooks
Summary and Critique of the Black Swan Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Out of My Skull: The Psychology of Boredom Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Glass Cage: Nicholas Carr in Conversation with Tim Wu Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Macat Analysis of David Riesman's The Lonely Crowd: A Study of the Changing American Character Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Taking Off the Colored Glasses Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFuture Babble: Why Expert Predictions Fail - and Why We Believe Them Anyway Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Better with Age: The Psychology of Successful Aging Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Evergreen Portfolio: Timeless Strategies to Survive and Prosper from Investing Pros Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Identity Economics: How Our Identities Shape Our Work, Wages, and Well-Being Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Placebo Effect Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Darwin Economy: Liberty, Competition, and the Common Good Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Macat Analysis of Eric Hoffer’s The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Doing Good Better: How Effective Altruism Can Help You Make a Difference Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Clash!: 8 Cultural Conflicts That Make Us Who We Are Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Changing How We Choose: The New Science of Morality Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMeasuring Happiness: The Economics of Well-Being Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Science of Fear: Why We Fear the Things We Should not- and Put Ourselves in Great Danger Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Work in the Future: The Automation Revolution Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Think Twice: Harnessing the Power of Counterintuition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Exploring the Psychology of Wealth, ‘Pernicious’ Effects of Economic Inequality Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRisk Savvy: How to Make Good Decisions Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Grandstanding: The Use and Abuse of Moral Talk Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Habits Die Hard: 10 Steps to Building Successful Habits Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Macat Analysis of Amos Tversky, and Daniel Kahneman’s Judgment Under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A Macat Analysis of Philip Zimbardo's The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic at Work and at Home Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ostrich Paradox: Why We Underprepare for Disasters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Social Science For You
Behold a Pale Horse Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Perfection Trap: Embracing the Power of Good Enough Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Demon Copperhead: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Song of Achilles: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hunger Games Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Come As You Are: Revised and Updated: The Surprising New Science That Will Transform Your Sex Life Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Overstory Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All the Light We Cannot See: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, 10th Anniversary Edition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Road Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Spoiler Alert: You're Gonna Die: Unveiling Death One Question at a Time Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Fourth Turning Is Here: What the Seasons of History Tell Us about How and When This Crisis Will End Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Parable of the Sower Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Year of Magical Thinking Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Razorblade Tears: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Left Hand of Darkness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Attention Span: A Groundbreaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness and Productivity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hate U Give Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Radiolab: Mixtape: How The Cassette Changed The World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Leave the World Behind: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Reviews for Black Swan, The
30 ratings3 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Very valid points but too long winded and go about beating the bush and explaining the same concept over and over again without moving on.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Insightful and surprisingly entertaining. I just hope I can remember these principals in the future
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The post book essay was life changing! I highly recommend it.