Book Review - Fooled By Randomness, by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Fooled by Randomness is an eye opener.
Don't let my stilted prose keep you from this book. Fooled By Randomness is a very pleasurable read.
From the Book: "Nero Tulip became obsessed with trading after witnessing a strange scene one spring day as he was visiting the Chicago Mercantile Exchange"...
As a disclaimer Nassim Nicholas Taleb has helped create a graduate course at Bastiat Free University that focuses on what has influenced his own success.
A version of the old saw, it is not what we don't know that hurts us, it is what we know and we are wrong that is dangerous.
Life is not linear and life is not simple.
We are used to making decisions based on obvious choices. Nassim Taleb shows that the complex decisions required in investment do not respond to an intuitive guess or obvious shortcuts.
Those that would take our money are very willing to use short-cut reasoning, and they may not even know why it is flawed.
Taleb makes a point of showing errors in the thought process or errors of logic that lead us to improper decisions.
Each of Nassim Taleb's points can save or make you money.
In Fooled By Randomness Taleb disagrees with much of what goes for wisdom in financial markets. He proves points with a minimum of math, all easily understandable.
I have read the book several times, I will read it again.
For one thing, I enjoy reading Fooled By Randomness.
For another thing I like to win in my speculations.
.
Don't let my stilted prose keep you from this book. Fooled By Randomness is a very pleasurable read.
From the Book: "Nero Tulip became obsessed with trading after witnessing a strange scene one spring day as he was visiting the Chicago Mercantile Exchange"...
As a disclaimer Nassim Nicholas Taleb has helped create a graduate course at Bastiat Free University that focuses on what has influenced his own success.
A version of the old saw, it is not what we don't know that hurts us, it is what we know and we are wrong that is dangerous.
Life is not linear and life is not simple.
We are used to making decisions based on obvious choices. Nassim Taleb shows that the complex decisions required in investment do not respond to an intuitive guess or obvious shortcuts.
Those that would take our money are very willing to use short-cut reasoning, and they may not even know why it is flawed.
Taleb makes a point of showing errors in the thought process or errors of logic that lead us to improper decisions.
Each of Nassim Taleb's points can save or make you money.
In Fooled By Randomness Taleb disagrees with much of what goes for wisdom in financial markets. He proves points with a minimum of math, all easily understandable.
I have read the book several times, I will read it again.
For one thing, I enjoy reading Fooled By Randomness.
For another thing I like to win in my speculations.
.
posted by BFuniv at 12:32 PM
2 Comments:
I fully agree. The book is an absolute eye-opener. I'm reading it for the second time and writing a summary in Spanish as there's no transalated edition available.
http://babalum.wordpress.com/2006/01/24/confundidos-por-el-azar-1/
Babalum,
Thanks for the comment.
Let me know if you want to have me add your summary to one of my sites, I'd love to have it.
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