Why people recommend it
Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Nicholas Taleb examines how luck and random chance are frequently misinterpreted as skill and success in finance and daily life. Jigar Shah shared on The Ezra Klein Show that the book forever changed his life by teaching him how much of perceived success is simply luck, and Russ Tedrake recommended it on the Lex Fridman Podcast as a guide to how random events shape history. Eric Weinstein mentioned the volume on Modern Wisdom when discussing how clusters of data and fortune are often dismissed. Michael Mauboussin spoke on How I Write and Acquired about how reading Taleb's 2001 work hit him like a physical blow, permanently altering his perspective on the prevalence of worldly randomness. Les Snead briefly referenced the book on The Daily Stoic during a conversation on decision-making, and Yeonmi Park brought up reading it on the Lex Fridman Podcast while discussing chance and courage.
Who recommended it
- Michael Mauboussin Discussed
- Yeonmi Park Discussed
- Jigar Shah Recommended
- Eric Weinstein Discussed
- Les Snead Discussed
- Russ Tedrake Recommended
- George MacGill Discussed
- Tim Ferriss Discussed
Michael Mauboussin — 2 mentions
“One was Fooled by Randomness, where that came out in 2001. And I read it and I was like, absolutely makes sense.”
“i also read full body randomness by tele obviously in 2001 as many people did and i obviously the basic point hitch in ahead like a 2x4 that there's more randomness in the world than you anticipate”
Yeonmi Park — 2 mentions
“so that's the thing uh i was reading this book food by randomness right yeah”
“so that's the thing uh i was reading this book food by randomness right yeah i was like they're up here like oh my god you're so courageous”
Jigar Shah — 1 mention
“well you know the book that has forever changed my life is Nim Nicholas talib's book Fooled by Randomness I read it before I started son Edison a long time ago and it reminds me today that like all the things that people take credit for a lot of it was luck”
Eric Weinstein — 1 mention
“this is what being Fooled by Randomness is all about”
Les Snead — 1 mention
“have you read uh fooled by randomness”
Russ Tedrake — 1 mention
“there's a great book by the way um look a series of books by nicholas taleb about fooled by randomness and black swan”
George MacGill — 1 mention
“yeah that's that comes from NASA Nutella NASA and Talib who wrote the Black Swan fooled by randomness and a few other interesting concepts”
Tim Ferriss — 1 mention
“so Nasim Talib who wrote The Black Swan Fooled by Randomness”