Table of Contents

Part I: Solon's Warning - Skewness, Asymmetry, Induction One: If You're So Rich Why Aren't You So Smart? Two: A Bizarre Accounting Method Three: A Mathematical Meditation on History Four: Randomness, Nonsense, and the Scientific Intellectual Five: Survival of the Least Fit - Can Evolution Be Fooled by Randomness? Six: Skewness and Asymmetry Seven: The Problem of Induction Part II Eight: Too Many Millionaires Next Door Nine: It Is Easier to Buy and Sell Than Fry and Egg Ten: Loser Takes All - On the Nonlinearities of Life Eleven: Randomness and Our Brain: We Are Probability Blind Part III Twelve: Gamblers' Ticks and Pigeons in a Box Thirteen: Carneades Comes to Rome: On Probability and Skepticism Fourteen: Bacchus Abandons Antony Epilogue: Solon Told You So

About the Author

Nassim Nicholas Taleb is the founder of Empirica Capital LLC, and Fellow of the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences of New York University. He was inducted into the Derivatives Strategy Hall of Fame in 2001. He lives in New York.

Reviews

erivativesreview.com, September 28, 2001 The book struck a distinct chord as the author seemed to have various wonderful and illuminating insights with which I could readily identify. Robert J. Shiller, author of Irrational Exuberance It is fun to read, refreshingly independently-minded and at the same time playful. Peter L. Bernstein, author of Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk Fascinating. Stick with it: Taleb will grab you... Scotland on Sunday, October 7, 2001 Taleb offers a candid assessment of the stock market in which he himself is a trader.