Questions About The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable

by Nassim Nicholas Taleb (Goodreads Author)

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Answered Questions (5)

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Iván Fanego I just finished it yesterday and my only regret is to not have read years ago. It is wonderful, it will change the way you see the world.

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Lucas Carlson Because of the magnitude of disaster possible when people are wrong and unprepared for being wrong. He hates the bell curve for massively misrepresent…moreBecause of the magnitude of disaster possible when people are wrong and unprepared for being wrong. He hates the bell curve for massively misrepresenting real risk potentials.(less)

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is the movie "black swan" is based on this one? i'm confused

Pablo Definitely not :)

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I'm curious - has any Software Engineer (or anyone who is generally into Software Engineering in any form) read this book? I somehow smell some good clues on Software Estimation :^)

Jaysen Huculak The book doesn't cover anything explicitly related to software estimation. The only direct reference I recall was higher rates of autism in engineerin…moreThe book doesn't cover anything explicitly related to software estimation. The only direct reference I recall was higher rates of autism in engineering and therefore a higher potential to miss conditions for Black Swans (I believe this was in the second edition additional material).
Reading the book you could be more prepared to understand if the requirements for your software are from mediocristan or extremistan. The range of estimates would relate including never shipping. I've had a few good managers that are up for that kind of chat. I've also had many that would rather just hear a good story like economists. I enjoyed reading Nassim's comments on economists.(less)

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Is there any reason to read Fooled By Randomness if you can read this book instead?