Fooled by Randomness
The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets
Ratings63
Average rating3.9
"[Taleb is] Wall Street's principal dissident. . . . [Fooled By Randomness] is to conventional Wall Street wisdom approximately what Martin Luther's ninety-nine theses were to the Catholic Church."--Malcolm Gladwell, The New Yorker
Finally in paperback, the word-of-mouth sensation that will change the way you think about the markets and the world. This book is about luck: more precisely how we perceive luck in our personal and professional experiences. Set against the backdrop of the most conspicuous forum in which luck is mistaken for skill--the world of business--Fooled by Randomness is an irreverent, iconoclastic, eye-opening, and endlessly entertaining exploration of one of the least understood forces in all of our lives.
— From the Trade Paperback edition.
Series
Featured Series
5 primary booksIncerto
Incerto is a 5-book series with 5 primary works first released in 2001 with contributions by Nassim Nicholas Taleb.
Reviews
Popular Reviews
Reviews with the most likes.
Not so enamoured with this popular book. Taleb finds himself incredibly intelligent for stating that hedging one's bets is a good idea and that randomness exists. Much of the book is spent on autofellatio and disparaging complex philosophy. It starts being a worthwhile read at about page 206. The typeface is the book's greatest achievement.
The main purpose of this book is to introduce the reader to the fact that so many times we give people credit for success, we are doing so in error and they have just been the beneficiary of random luck. It's important to note that we all do this ourselves as well and if we don't recognize the truth, we leave ourselves open to risk that we don't even see because we assume better of ourselves than we really should be.
That was all quite excellent.
I was a bit surprised by Taleb's repeated praising of George Soros throughout the book. It didn't really seem tied in to the main theme very well and really seemed to come out of (far) left field. As I read through the remainder of Incerto, maybe the connection will become clearer to me.
