I remember this book created some interesting discussion a while back, and several posters (incuding me) expressed interest in reading "The Black Swan," by Nassim Taleb.
I would like to begin by stating that I have not read every single page in this book, and I will get to that later.
The review:
Anyone familiar with the writings of Mason Malmouth will be able to understand the basis of this book. The foundation is the effect of non-self-weighting events vs self-weighting events, except that Taleb goes to the far extreme of calling some of these non-self-weighting events Black Swans, Grey Swans, and other made up words.
While many ideas are based in sound reasoning, and many of the contrived situations are acceptable, most of these ideas are hardly "rare."
Many books of this sort have several failings. The first is over-explaining. At many points Taleb seems to make a point, but then decides to rewind and make the point over again. Taleb fails to accept the reader may have an IQ over 55, and this marks the beginning of this books fall. After I felt I understood his point, I decided to skip over the rest of chapter one and get into chapter 2, where I expected to find the meat of the book.
Unfortunately, it doesn't start there, or anywhere. Taleb spends most of his time sucking up to Manderblot, and debunking other great minds, especially Gauss. At some point, Taleb pretty much calls Gauss a fraud, and many other Nobel Laureates boring and uninspired. This attitude displays the over all voice of "The Black Swan." Taleb comes across as elitist and a self-congratulatory dilussioned intellectual.
The biggest problem I have is that for all the hatred Taleb has for Gauss, he fails to comprehend that Gauss's theories are essential for the foundation of fractal geometry. I find this lack of knowledge frightening. Many times Taleb wholly lies about the interpretations of math. Namely that the Gaussian models for statistics are the only ones used today, and that staticians are ignorant in their applications, or that Gaussian graphs do not allow for black swans. Taleb is unrelenting in his disdain for mathemeticians and statistics. Taleb compounds this with more lies, by stating that the M-group is the most famous mathematical equation in history. Really? Even more famous than a^2 + s^2 = c^2? Since I am touching on Euclid, Taleb seems to believe that all theorists work in a comfirmation bias slant, when the very foundation of proofs is attempting to disprove the proof.
At the beginning of the book, Taleb speaks of a library. Apparently, Taleb does not do much research or reading, and doesn't understand the implications of incomplete and falsified information. I don't understand why he feels he must sling mud at the establishment. While questioning the math of the giants is fine, drop-kicking them with unfounded venom is uncalled for.
Thanks for the review. This book has been on my "to read" list for a while now.
Now I can push it down the list and move some of these new poker books up.
I made a post a month or two ago about his other book, 'Fooled By Randomness' and found it to be very insightful and thought provoking. Since, I have not looked at poker or the element of luck within a given situation the same. Though it is true that he seems to repeat many of his ideas, I found it amazing that he is able to convey what are extremely difficult concepts into a very easy and digestible form of thought.
I can't say I am not disappointed with your review if only because I was looking forward to reading the book. I do appreciate your time though Dave.
i loved TBS when I read it a year or so ago. Fooled by Randomness was better, and Taleb does overstate his case some, but I don't have to agree with everything for a book to be valuable. I'd rather it provoke me, and TBS definitely did that.
