Person
Nassim Nicholas Taleb's books and book recommendations
Across 2 podcasts. Every show Nassim Nicholas Taleb appears on, in one place — not just one.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb is a Lebanese-American New York University professor, essayist, mathematical statistician, former option trader, risk analyst, and aphorist. His work concerns problems of randomness, probability, complexity, and uncertainty. During appearances on programs like The Tim Ferriss Show and EconTalk, Taleb discussed his own extensive body of written work. He recommended his book Skin in the Game as a useful starting point for lawyers and certain other readers. While reflecting on his writing career, Taleb described taking time off to complete The Black Swan, noting how writing Fooled by Randomness temporarily diverted him before he returned to finish the project. In conversations regarding the COVID-19 pandemic and systemic stress, Taleb referenced concepts and examples from his books Antifragile, Skin in the Game, and The Black Swan, using them to illustrate individual-level physical adaptations, the nature of absorbing barriers in systems, and the implications of modern global connectivity on uncertainty and risk.
Books by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
-
The Black Swan
-
Fooled by Randomness
-
Antifragile
-
Skin in the Game
-
The Bed of Procrustes
-
Basic Laws of Human Stupidity
Books recommended by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
-
Skin in the Game
Skin in the Game by Nassim Nicholas Taleb is a provocative philosophical exploration of risk, accountability, and asymmetry in human systems.
Recommended“or if you're lawyer can in the game”
Where to get it
-
The Black Swan
The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb is a provocative non-fiction book exploring the massive impact of rare, highly improbable events and human society's systemic blindness to uncertainty.
Discussed“so I said okay it'll take some time off to finish the Black Swan which I couldn't finish when I was training which actually I started before F by Randomness”
Where to get it
-
Antifragile
Antifragile by Nassim Nicholas Taleb is a provocative nonfiction book arguing that certain systems, leaders, and individuals actually gain strength and thrive when exposed to disorder, stress, and volatility.
Discussed“the example i gave in anti-fragile at the individual level is if i jump one meter i'm probably going to get stronger”
Where to get it
-
Fooled by Randomness
Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Nicholas Taleb is a popular exploration of the massive role that chance, luck, and probability play in human success, finance, and everyday life.
Discussed“okay okay I started Black Swan and then I said okay I'm going to talk about Randomness so I got diverted and fulfilled by Randomness and then I finished the Black Swan”
Where to get it
Appearances
Other mentions (18: passing, ad reads, own books)
“this led to my book skin in a game later on”
“the fellow who wrote cash 22 it's a lot of interesting folks out there”
“I think in the black s skepticism where it matters and I noticed that a lot of these big Skeptics were not skeptical of God”
“I wrote about it in in food by Randomness”
“so in the Black Swan I show the difference with the following metaphor there are environments where you may have a large deviation”
“the convexity that's the theme of antifragile”
“although antifragile is currently my most successful book it's read more in 2023 than it was was in 2013 second year publication”
“I know Black Swan is read more now than it was a year after publication”
“and I explained it in the Black Swan right before it happened I looked at the risk of fannye by deserter”
“I think fo by Randomness is the one that people like the most the blacks one what they s the most”
“the blacks one what they s the most”
“and antifragile is the one they misuse the most”
“I started the topic in antifragile but how things scale differently”
“and i discussed that antifragile turned out to be fragile empires feared”
“and to use an example i i have an anti-fragile the story of the rabbi who one day was asked by the king to find a solution to the following problem”
“now uh the the the the the this is very similar to food by randomness the problem by randomness”
“okay and and i gave the example and food by randomness by saying if something has a one unit of standard deviation for one unit of returns”
“so so i mean think like that the the the the mechanism is very linked to fooled by randomness”