Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
"Fooled by Randomness was actually suggested to me by my __________ boss.
He basic premise of the book is that success is really more of a function of luck rather than skill, oftentimes. He focuses a lot on the success and failures of Wall Street traders, and one example he gives is of a trader who was enormously successful up until 1997, had several million dollars of net worth; and then due to a series of trades which were consistent with that he - with what that trader had done previously to make himself successful that the same trading strategy that was so successful for him actually caused him to lose just about everything that he had.
What Taleb's point was is that what makes you successful on one area or at one time in your life may not necessarily be due to your wits or your intelligence. It could just be because you got lucky.
If there's one book I think in the past ten years that really helped me have a better view of this world, it's this book; and I've read lots and lots of books over the past ten years. I don't think there's a single book that really dramatically changed my view and helped me have a deeper view of the world than Taleb's book. So I would say this is clearly at the top of my list for non-fiction. I would rate this book as five stars."
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