The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Book report: "The Black Swan" By Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Reading the Black Swan takes me to a different place from the usual scientific literature, maybe it's because it can't be classified as one, if someone would ask me now to classify this book I probably would need to put some effort in to it because it is not a casual case. The author, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, dresses up his theories as stories, and mixes them with all manner of autobiographical commentary. The book constantly moving between two extremes; very simple ideas that could be shared with children and a very complicated, sophisticated and advanced academic renovations that only professionals would be able to follow.

Perhaps reading my own words and thinking about it, allows me to realize only now that the made up character from chapter 2, "Yevgenia - The Writer", that later on pops up a lot throughout the book, is the reflection of the author himself in his own eyes, it's a bit strange that he would choose a Russian female to disguise himself in to the story but all the same I think that this is the main fact that shows us that the author himself is his own biggest admirer. I guess that this is where my criticism starts. I must comment about the surprising (at least for me) way the author chooses to end the book, where he predicts very little success for his next book. I think it has something to do with general trends in the financial industry, while in the case of the "Black Swan" he addressed controversial ideas that have been on everybody's mind, this book was needed because the audience was mature and ready for it, I think his next book will address some underground ideas that the industry isn't ready for and will reject it.

My expectations from this book were pretty high I must admit, of course I didn't expect it to provide me with some "magic pill" that would help me to solve the mysteries of the universe (or the stock market), but I certainly hoped it would bring me closer to some new ideas or innovative approaches of the economic views about the stock market.

I found most of the book very dull, despite the enormous author's efforts to originate and create an amusing scientific reading experience it all came down to small and trite idea of pessimistic determinism where we can't control nor predict our environment no matter what we are doing, an axiom that dictates our insignificant participation in that random reality we live in, mixed with the author's personal history. Also, throughout the entire book, the author exposes us to countless pointless examples style "one plus one isn't always two...." which are not of any help to us in reaching new insights, but only irritates instead.

From the author's description of his childhood and adolescence I conclude that he is practically royalty who got everything on a silver platter, those privet French teaching schools and expensive business colleges suggests that obviously he comes from an elite society background, unfortunately that only harms the reading experience, because it reflects negatively on the story he tries to tell, as I

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