The Black Swan, Nassim Nicholas Taleb
subtitle: The Impact of the Highly Improbable
I heard the author on Radio 4 and was intrigued with his central premise that there are wholly unpredictable random events which throw a spaner in the works and about how we often infer things that we ought not to. So I bought the book.
The author has a website http://www.fooledbyrandomness.com/ where you can find out more about him if you are interested.
Synopsis
This book is all about Black Swans: the random events that underly our lives, from bestsellers to world disasters. Their impact is huge; they’re nearly impossible to predict; yet after they happen we always try to rationalise them. A rallying cry to ignore the ‘experts’, the Black Swan shows us how to stop trying to predict everything and take advantage of uncertainty.
ISBN 9780141034591
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As a bit of a postscript to the short entry. I read the book, enjoyed it immensely and would strongly recommend it to people as a good way to challenge how we normally think about things.