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August 16, 2005
Fooled by Randomness
FOOLED BY RANDOMNESS: THE HIDDEN ROLE OF CHANCE IN THE MARKETS AND IN LIFE
Nassim Nicholas Taleb does it all, he's a successful trader, author, and academic. His book Fooled by Randomness is soon to come out in paperback, and draws on sources from Finance to Literature to address the role of chance in life.
FLAP:
"The book is populated with an array of characters, some of whom have grasped, in their own way, the significance of chance: Yogi Berra, the baseball legend; Karl Popper, the philosopher knowledge; Solon, the Ancient World’s wisest man; the modern financier George Soros; and the Greek voyager Ulysses. In addition we meet the fictional Nero, who seems to understand the role of randomness in his life, but who also falls victim to his own superstitious foolishness. But the most recognizable character of all remains unnamed: the lucky fool in the right place at the right time. The embodiment of the survival of the least fit. Such individuals attract devoted followers who believe in their guru's insights and methods. But no one can replicate what is obtained through chance. A monkey banging on the keyboard may eventually produce the Iliad, but would you sign him to write the sequel?"
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Academic & Teaching:
Nassim Nicholas Taleb is Dean's Professor in the Sciences of Uncertainty at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He is a fellow in Mathematics in Finance and an adjunct Professor at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences of New York University. Taleb is also a visiting Professor of Risk Management at the Université Paris-Dauphine.
Selected Publications:
(2004). "Blowup" versus "Bleed": What Does Empirical Psychology Say About the Preference For Negative Skewness? Journal of Behavioral Finance, 5, 1.
(2005). Roots of Unfairness. Journal of the International Comparative Literature Association: Literary Research/Recherche Littéraire 21.41-42.
(2005). On the Risk of the Unforecastable and its Perception", in Preventing Genocide: A Handbook for Foreign Policy Professionals, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Publications.
Quote:
"My major hobby is teasing people who take themselves and the quality of their knowledge too seriously and those who don’t have the guts to sometimes say: I don’t know...." (You may not be able to change the world but can at least get some entertainment and make a living out of the epistemic arrogance of the human race).
Nassim Nicholas Taleb's Home Page
Posted by DSN at August 16, 2005 11:44 PM