Category Archives: Books

Sunday Times The Bed of Procrustes Review

The Sunday Time’s Robert Collins wrote a review of The Bed of Procrustes. It’s behind a paywall but NNT was kind enough to make it available from his site. Here’s a direct pdf download link.
And thanks to Dave Lull for letting me know.
Here’s an excerpt:

The likes of Facebook, though, get his epistemological hackles up: “Social networks present information about what people like; more informative if, instead, they described what they don’t like.” And so that’s precisely what Taleb does: gyms, economists, carbohydrates, journalists — he loathes them all. “I take a ritual bath after any contact, or correspondence (even emails), with consultants, economists, Harvard Business School professors, journalists, and those in similarly depraved pursuits.”

Oh, and don’t forget you: “Newspaper readers exposed to real prose are like deaf persons at a Puccini opera.”

But if there’s one thing that truly gets Taleb’s goat in his arch if uneven meditations, it’s jobs: “Those who do not think that employment is systemic slavery are either blind or employed.” Which brilliantly proves how clever the maddeningly wise Taleb is: he’s cured himself of that problem completely.

PBS Video Taleb & Roubini Examine Potential for Longer Recession

Original Source, PBS Newshour (includes full transcript) HatTip to Dave Lull
Love the ‘Fat Tails’ info graphic. (Note, for some reason sometimes the embed
doesn’t show, if you don’t see a video window on this post, try refreshing the
page. Otherwise, watch it at the original source link above.)

 

Audio Only mp3

Nouriel Roubini also has a new book you might want to check out.

Black Swan Second Edition

 

The Black Swan – Second Edition Now Shipping!

Black Swan Second Edition

This title was released on May 11, 2010. Order Here.

I’m on my third reading, not to mention having listened to the audio book twice, so I wasn’t sure
about getting the second edition. But in his Hard Problems talk,  NNT mentions having
become obsessed with robustness, and that accounting for the additional 100 pages…  Sold!
It will be nice to start with a fresh copy, mine is a little worn with all the highlighter, notes,
bent pages, cracked spine etc.