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|  | Author: Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
List Price: $17.00
Buy Used: $3.71
as of 11/22/2009 22:03 CST details
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Seller: hallstreetbookstore
Rating:  432 reviews
Sales Rank: 4944
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 21-25 of 432
 interesting concept but falls short April 22, 2009
Vincent Alexandre (ma)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
provides some interesting arguments however this book seems like nothing more than the ramblings of an egomaniac. all this book did was inspire me to buy puts to cover my longs incase of the black swan event other than that it just leaves you confused.
Refreshing, Eye Opening, and Insightful look at Chance in Everyday Life April 21, 2009
Xenocrates
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
Fooled by Randomness delves into the often overlooked significance of chance in everyday life. Taleb covers the issue of widespread innumeracy as well as society's general unwillingness to accept randomness as a major influence in success. As Taleb suggests, "Past events will always look less random than they were", and as a result, the scope of the material covered within the book will be eye opening to most.
Taleb infers early in the book that hindsight bias tends to cause people to create erroneous explanations for results. "Nobody accepts randomness in his success, only his failure." Taleb points out that most people don't even understand adequate probability to recognize what is truly random and what is not. Fooled by Randomness focuses on these issues and provides an abundance of intriguing concepts along the way.
Taleb is careful not to discount skill, but weary of those who attribute any accomplishment with talent. The ability to flip 10 heads in a row on a fair coin is pure chance, but only 1,024 people would be needed for an expectation of 1 success. The successful flipper would have no more skill than any of the failures, yet society has the poor habit of assuming any success is a result of skill, discounting the near certainly of success given by probability. Skill can lead to accomplishment in any endeavor, but given a large enough pool, chance will also lead to some success and thus to group all victors with an assumption of skill is irrational, and presents the essence of Taleb's work.
The book is filled with many outstanding nuggets of insight and only weakened by its organization, as the material tends to be scattered at times. This weakness is easily overshadowed by the value of the content and should not deter anyone with an open mind. I highly recommend this book to those seeking a better understanding of chance and its role in life.
 Schrödinger had a cat April 18, 2009
G. Cygiel (Glen Burnie, MD USA)
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone as an introduction of why they should rarely state anything with certainty. Nassim offers a soft approach to the topic of randomness and minimizes the exposure to exotic concepts that could befuddle those without strong scientific backgrounds.
 Pompous author - difficult to read. April 13, 2009
M. Rosen (Washington, DC)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I am extremely interested in the subject matter of this book (ie probability theory especially as it relates to the financial markets). That being said, it is hard to focus on the material Taleb presents because he is such a pompous prick. He goes off on unrelated tangents trying to prove to the world that he has above average intelligence - if he would stop trying so hard I might be able to learn something useful from him.
Random and important March 20, 2009
D. Hicok (Laguna Beach, CA USA)
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is not an easy read but it may be one of the most important books I have read. If you are in the business of managing investments or a serious investor, this book in a must. Read everything you can get your hands on by Taleb.
Showing reviews 21-25 of 432
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