Nassim is a brilliant thinker and insightful writer. Has had a significant impact on the way I perceive risk and approach my job as a venture capitalist and an entrepreneur. A highly recommended read for everyone in the high-tech start-up ecosystem

The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable (Hardcover)

This is a popular book with good reason- the idea is original and could be profitable. If you are the kind of person who likes original science and academic work masquerading as a business book, you'll like this. I loved it and recommend it.

One disappointing thing (I think)- when I first read "Fooled by Randomness", Taleb's wandering style and understated egoism anoyed me. But it grew on me to the point where I was looking forward to that voice when I opened The Black Swan. I'm not sure what happened, but Taleb is all business in this one. He has points to make, stories to share, and he gets it done as economically as he can (which sill tends to be long winded in his enjoyable kind of way). Less of a memoir and more of an essay. Maybe that's a good thing.

I love this thought provoking book. Wonderful to read and discuss with others, it challenges the way you think and view the world. A must for your bookshelf,

Startling, profound and universal, The Black Swan will change the way you look at the world.

Taleb is a vastly entertaining writer, with wit, irreverence, and unusual stories to tell. He has a polymathic command of subjects ranging from cognitive science to business to probability theory.