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Regional areas: | 3-4 business days |
Remote areas: | 3-5 business days |
Our books are listed as Author Surname, First Name Book Title. To browse alphabetically by author, simply click here and select Sort by Title: https://www.bobshop.co.za/jsp/userprofile/UserTradeList.jsp?User_UserId=1015374
The most influential book of the past seventy-five years: a groundbreaking exploration of everything we know about what we don't know, now with a new section called "On Robustness and Fragility." A black swan is a highly improbable event with three principal characteristics: It is unpredictable; it carries a massive impact; and, after the fact, we concoct an explanation that makes it appear less random, and more predictable, than it was. The astonishing success of Google was a black swan; so was 9/11. For Nassim Nicholas Taleb, black swans underlie almost everything about our world, from the rise of religions to events in our own personal lives. Why do we not acknowledge the phenomenon of black swans until after they occur? Part of the answer, according to Taleb, is that humans are hardwired to learn specifics when they should be focused on generalities. We concentrate on things we already know and time and time again fail to take into consideration what we don't know. We are, therefore, unable to truly estimate opportunities, too vulnerable to the impulse to simplify, narrate, and categorize, and not open enough to rewarding those who can imagine the "impossible." For years, Taleb has studied how we fool ourselves into thinking we know more than we actually do. We restrict our thinking to the irrelevant and inconsequential, while large events continue to surprise us and shape our world. In this revelatory book, Taleb will change the way you look at the world, and this second edition features a new philosophical and empirical essay, "On Robustness and Fragility," which offers tools to navigate and exploit a Black Swan world. Taleb is a vastly entertaining writer, with wit, irreverence, and unusual stories to tell. He has a polymathic command of subjects ranging from cognitive science to business to probability theory. Elegant, startling, and universal in its applications, The Black Swan is a landmark bookitself a black swan.
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Pictures & Illustrations
Although we have photographed the majority of our products, some still feature stock images for illustration purposes only. Please note that the cover design of the actual product may differ from what is shown.
Condition & Availability
All our books are secondhand unless stated otherwise. Since we operate a network of physical stores in addition to our online presence, and update our Bobshop inventory only at the close of each business day, there may be occasions where items listed as available online have already been sold in-store. In such instances, we will provide a full refund promptly.
Readmatter is the proud sponsor of Penguins "Blikkies" , "Bos", "GC", "Geraldina" and "Gemini" at the East London Aquarium.