The Black Swan

Am currently suffering from Taleb fever. Having finished Fooled by Randomness last week, I am currently reading The Black Swan and have already ordered a copy of Dynamic Hedging. The book is intriguing but leaves an inconsistent taste. The theory itself a breath of fresh air as far as books go but I have met traders who are more critical of financial and accounting theory.

The book differentiates between scalable and non-scalable jobs, but does not account for any "alpha", the only variables he restricts himself to are "beta" and randomness. Anything exceptional though a black swan has been ascribed to mostly luck. If this were a movie, the villain would either be played by Gauss or Samuelson.

Whatever may be said it is a must read for any wannabe cynic.