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|  | Author: Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
List Price: $17.00
Buy Used: $3.71
as of 11/23/2009 06:31 CST details
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Seller: hallstreetbookstore
Rating:  432 reviews
Sales Rank: 5470
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Edition: 2 Updated
Pages: 368
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.2 x 0.9
ISBN: 0812975219
Dewey Decimal Number: 123.3
EAN: 9780812975215
ASIN: 0812975219
Publication Date: August 23, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: 2005 - Paperback - - - - Used - Good - Hall Street Books proudly ships from Brooklyn, NY. All orders are processed and shipped within 24 hours, M-F. 100% money back No-Worry guarantee with expedited delivery and delivery confirmation available.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 16-20 of 432
 Wanted to enjoy it, but failed May 28, 2009
John Wiegley (San Francisco, CA United States)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I love ideas that force you to examine old things in new ways. And this book promises to offer a powerful such perspective: to endow you with a greater consciousness of the sea of randomness that surrounding the supposed determinism of life when viewed "in hindsight". It even delivers on this promise to a slight extent.
What caused me to stop reading is that by and large the book read like a rambling mess. A precious few insights bobbing in a sea of words and references I couldn't care less about.
Case in point: In the first two chapters, he makes reference to the concept of a "Monte Carlo engine" with which he models randomness-rich events. He promises to explain what this engine is in Chapter 3. However, while chapter 3 repeatedly claims it's just about to reveal what the Monte Carlo engine is, it only implies, it never explains. In fact, most of the chapter just walks all over the place, sounding more like an endless, repetitive diatribe than anything else.
By the end of chapter 3 I was skipping pages, looking for the promised explanation of the Monte Carlo engine, which sounded fascinating in and of itself. Supposedly he uses it to model organisms, cancer cells, and all kinds of things. But I never found any substantive description of what it was, or how he uses it to achieve those results. And so I skipped faster and faster until I realized it wasn't worth trying anymore. I just didn't care to spend the work to separate the wheat from the abundant chaff.
I think he could have boiled his book down to something 1/4th the size, and with tremendous impact. But I just didn't find it enjoyable in its current form.
Wall Street meets Levant May 12, 2009
Alaturka (Northport, NY USA)
3 out of 6 found this review helpful
To say the least an unorthodox book, filled with musings, life lessons and philosophy of the author and one central theme about probabilistic events and how they are perceived and misinterpreted by even well trained professionals.
If Mr. Taleb had stuck to his original thesis instead of branching out needlessly and had used the services of a professional editor, it would have made a more pleasant but much shorter read. Yes, there is also way too much of Mr. Taleb in the book, obviously a very smart and cultivated man with a sizable ego, who seems to carry a certain bitterness too.
What was more interesting was the clash between the Middle Eastern genes of Mr Taleb and the extremely quantitative and results oriented culture of Wall Street and West in general. This is probably what led him to the thoughts that resulted in this book.
 Excellent points on all fronts - even if a little haughty May 10, 2009
Mike Morgan (New York, NY)
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
If you are an economist, financial analyst or MBA you will probably feel insulted by Taleb at least once every 10 pages or so. But Taleb makes a point and makes it well. A lot of analysis is no better than astrology. People see patterns even where there are none.
And its about time someone really exposed the whole hoax with the "Nobel" prize for economics (It's really the Royal Bank of Sweden Alfred Nobel Memorial Prize, not created by the original Nobel foundation). For all its psuedo-scientific mathematical models, economics is really not a science at all. If it were, it would have noticed that it's heralded models don't match reality.
Good stuff April 28, 2009
Carlos Von Strummagoodin (USA)
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
Interesting reading. I enjoyed Taleb's subtle, dry humor. I haven't read The Black Swan yet, but will likely read it as well.
Good book. April 27, 2009
Matt Esrick (Albany, NY)
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
Just like the Black Swan, this is a good book on randomness and other topics. TTL (the author) is very witty and entertaining, and has a compelling argument.
Showing reviews 16-20 of 432
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