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

In Fooled by Randomness, Taleb takes the reader on a fascinating journey through our perceptions of success, failure and luck. He takes the mathematics and psychology of probability and explains them with reference to the financial markets and life in general. Concepts such as survivorship bias, induction and our genetic lack of fitness for the modern world are laid before the reader in a highly entertaining and accessible narrative that sweeps across the trading rooms of New York and Chicago, passing along the way Solon (the Ancient World’s wisest man), the philosophy of Karl Popper and the pronouncements of Yogi Berra (“it ain’t over ’till the fat lady sings”) amongst others. At the end of the journey, the reader is left with a deep understanding of the role randomness plays in all our lives.