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Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets
by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38315.Fooled_by_Randomness_The_Hidden_Role_of_Chance_in_Life_and_in_the_Markets?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets" border="0" src="http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1169137831m/38315.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38315.Fooled_by_Randomness_The_Hidden_Role_of_Chance_in_Life_and_in_the_Markets?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/21559.Nassim_Nicholas_Taleb">Nassim Nicholas Taleb</a> 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/13127410?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
 rating: 5 of 5 stars just downloaded from audible.com
 
 This was a very thought provoking and enjoyable audiobook. Anyone who invests is the stock market or thinks they are a trader should read it. It is also of general interest to people who would like to understand the impact of randomness on life.
 
 Narrator: Sean Pratt
 Publisher: Gildan Media Corp, 2008
 Length: 10 hours and 1 min.
 
 What the Critics Say
 "[Taleb is:] Wall Street's principal dissident....[Fooled by Randomness:] is to conventional Wall Street wisdom approximately what Martin Luther's ninety-nine theses were to the Catholic Church." (Malcolm Gladwell, The New Yorker)
 "An articulate, wise, and humorous meditation on the nature of success and failure that anyone who wants a little more of the former would do well to consider." (Amazon.com)
 
 Publisher's Summary
 This audiobook is about luck, or more precisely, how we perceive and deal with luck in life and business. It is already a landmark work and its title has entered our vocabulary. In its second edition, Fooled by Randomness is now a cornerstone for anyone interested in random outcomes.
 
 Set against the backdrop of the most conspicuous forum in which luck is mistaken for skill, the world of trading, this audiobook is a captivating insight into one of the least understood factors of all our lives. In an entertaining narrative style, the author succeeds in tackling three major intellectual issues: the problem of induction, the survivorship biases, and our genetic unfitness to the modern word. Taleb uses stories and anecdotes to illustrate our overestimation of causality and the heuristics that make us view the world as far more explainable than it actually is.
 
 The audiobook 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 of knowledge; Solon, the ancient world's wisest man; the modern financier George Soros; and the Greek voyager Ulysses. We also meet the fictional Nero, who seems to understand the role of randomness in his professional life, but who also falls victim to his own superstitious foolishness.
 
 But the most recognizable character 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.
 
 It may be impossible to guard against the vagaries of the Goddess Fortuna, but after listening to Fooled by Randomness we can be a little better prepared.
 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/220391?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

Johnsergeant's review
rating:
bookshelves: audiblecom, audiobook, investing
recommended for: investors and 'traders'

just downloaded from audible.com

This was a very thought provoking and enjoyable audiobook. Anyone who invests is the stock market or thinks they are a trader should read it. It is also of general interest to people who would like to understand the impact of randomness on life.

Narrator: Sean Pratt
Publisher: Gildan Media Corp, 2008
Length: 10 hours and 1 min.

What the Critics Say
"[Taleb is:] Wall Street's principal dissident....[Fooled by Randomness:] is to conventional Wall Street wisdom approximately what Martin Luther's ninety-nine theses were to the Catholic Church." (Malcolm Gladwell, The New Yorker)
"An articulate, wise, and humorous meditation on the nature of success and failure that anyone who wants a little more of the former would do well to consider." (Amazon.com)

Publisher's Summary
This audiobook is about luck, or more precisely, how we perceive and deal with luck in life and business. It is already a landmark work an...more

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