The Black Swan (Hardcover)

Eric R. Lybeck

ISBN 10: 1912302322 / ISBN 13: 9781912302321

Published by Macat International Limited, London, 2017

About this Item

Hardcover. One of the primary qualities of good creative thinking is an intellectual freedom to think outside of the box. Good creative thinkers resist orthodox ideas, take new lines of enquiry, and generally come at problems from the kinds of angles almost no one else could. And, what is more, when the ideas of creative thinkers are convincing, they can reshape an entire topic, and change the orthodoxy for good. Nassim Nicholas Talebs 2007 bestseller The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable is precisely such a book: an entertaining, polemical, creative attack on how people in general, and economic experts in particular view the possibility of catastrophic events. Taleb writes with rare creative verve for someone who is also an expert in mathematics, finance, and epistemology (the philosophy of knowledge), and he martials all his skills to turn standard reasoning inside out. His central point is that far from being unimportant, extremely rare events are frequently the most important ones of all: it is highly improbable, but highly consequential occurrences what he calls Black Swans that have shaped history most. As a result, Taleb concludes, improbability is not a reason to act as if a possible event does not matter. Rather, it should inspire the opposite reaction. Europeans once thought all swans were white, and white was part of how they defined `swan. Then black swans were discovered, and the definition changed forever.I Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9781912302321

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Black Swan (Hardcover)
• Publisher: Macat International Limited, London
• Publication Date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1912302322
• ISBN 13: 9781912302321
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

One of the primary qualities of good creative thinking is an intellectual freedom to think outside of the box. Good creative thinkers resist orthodox ideas, take new lines of enquiry, and generally come at problems from the kinds of angles almost no one else could. And, what is more, when the ideas of creative thinkers are convincing, they can reshape an entire topic, and change the orthodoxy for good.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s 2007 bestseller The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable is precisely such a book: an entertaining, polemical, creative attack on how people in general, and economic experts in particular view the possibility of catastrophic events. Taleb writes with rare creative verve for someone who is also an expert in mathematics, finance, and epistemology (the philosophy of knowledge), and he martials all his skills to turn standard reasoning inside out. His central point is that far from being unimportant, extremely rare events are frequently the most important ones of all: it is highly improbable, but highly consequential occurrences – what he calls Black Swans – that have shaped history most.

As a result, Taleb concludes, improbability is not a reason to act as if a possible event does not matter. Rather, it should inspire the opposite reaction.

About the Author

Dr Eric Lybeck is an historical sociologist. He holds a PhD in sociology from the University of Cambridge, and now lectures in sociology at the University of Exeter. He is a member of the editorial board for Current Perspectives in Social Theory and is the author of Sociological Amnesia, edited with Alex Law, a book that explores the forgotten legacies of once influential sociologists whose work has since been neglected by the discipline.