I've had this on my "want to
read" list for eons but only finally got around to it. I found this a highly informative book without really bogging down into a bunch of math or
other fine details.
In fact, that's kind of the whole point of it. His writing
style is also quite hilarious and I would suspect we might hit it off, if I was
ever fortunate enough to meet the guy, a lot of this stuff sounds like
something I would say, though, of course, he thought of it first and went the
distance chasing down these thoughts. But yeah, I totally get where he's coming
from.
The basic premise is that all these charts, reams of data, prediction models, et cetera are completely useless because one fluke hugely
unexpected event arrives (it pretty much always arrives) and totally
annihilates any notion of an "average" or anyone having the first
clue what's going to happen...but trust me, it's way more interesting that that
little recap makes it sound.
The most influential book of the past seventy-five years: a groundbreaking exploration of everything we know about what we don’t know, now with a new section called “On Robustness and Fragility.”
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…
It was just an interesting collection
of essays, some of them autobiographical.
The first piece, where she breezes
through individual years of her life, was hilarious and fascinating. I also
really liked her in-depth examination of The
X-Files. Well written,
comical, and often extremely insightful all around.
'Outstanding... An elegant masterpiece... Wry but also warm and generous' Roxane Gay
'Funny, exciting, vulnerable - truly visionary' Alexander Chee
Ten days after calling off her wedding, CJ Hauser went on an expedition to study the whooping crane. After a week wading through the gulf, she realised she had almost signed up to live somebody else's life.
In this intimate, frank and funny memoir in essays, CJ Hauser lets go of 'how life was supposed to be' and goes looking for more honest ways of living. She kisses internet strangers, officiates a wedding, visits a fertility clinic. She reads Rebecca…
This was another one where people
from every angle had been recommending it for years... yet I resisted, thinking
it didn't sound all that amazing, and I basically knew what it would be about
without any need to even read it. But I finally caved in and have to admit I was
totally wrong.
This was a highly engaging and informative book. Lately, I've
been less into dry scientific texts and more into something closer to essays,
where the author does bring some knowledge to the table but more personality as
well. And this definitely fits the bill.
Many are also interpreting it as a
slam on the whole "10,000 Hours" rule about becoming a master at
something, and if so, I would applaud it even more because I always thought
that theory was bunkum myself.
'Fascinating . . . If you're a generalist who has ever felt overshadowed by your specialist colleagues, this book is for you' - Bill Gates
The instant Sunday Times Top Ten and New York Times bestseller Shortlisted for the Financial Times/McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award A Financial Times Essential Reads
A powerful argument for how to succeed in any field: develop broad interests and skills while everyone around you is rushing to specialize.
From the '10,000 hours rule' to the power of Tiger parenting, we have been taught that success in any field requires early specialization and many…
In
this highly anticipated follow-up to his memoir One Hundred
Virgins, the author continues to document in riotous fashion life on a
major college campus, in a major U.S. city. Though specifically Ohio State
University and Columbus, Ohio, in a sense, the particulars don't matter because
such experiences are universal.
Joined by his familiar cast of fellow
reprobates, along with a healthy crop of fresh recruits, this crew closes out
their final year exploring campus. If the first six months were centered around
discovery, then this epoch finds them operating under the banner of refinement
and expansion. As always, the journey is nothing if not wildly unpredictable,
and a continual reminder that it's often best to just start running, with no
end goal in sight.
