Management

Good book overall, and a rock solid premise with which I already agreed so I am a little biased.

The only real issue is that he doesn't treat some of his research with a critical enough eye. He repeats a good deal of research made popular in a number of other books on behavioral economics and pop psychology even though that research isn't really that solid.

Science writer Ed Yong recently made a splash by pointing out that one of the cited bits of research in this book is not replicable. This is a basic tenet of scientific research that even an attentive high school student understands. If your experiment cannot be replicated, it's not valid. Yale psych prof John Bargh is the author of a study on priming where various test subjects were supposedly tested on one thing, when in fact they were being "primed" to think (or not think) of the elderly, and the old. Supposedly the test subjects who were exposed to the "old" words and images would subsequently walk and move slower after such priming.

Only problem is that no one has been able to replicate the study.

Now of course this is a review about the book "Wait" and not about Professor Bargh, but the larger point is that the author apparently did his research, not by looking at actual research but by reading other popularized books on research. Bargh's study is the most glaring, but the author makes a habit of citing a number of such questionable studies.

Which is unfortunate because his basic premise is solid, but he has treated his subject in a rather sloppy manner. Still worth reading, but it falls short of being as excellent of a book as the subject really warranted.

An outstanding book.

Jackall correctly discerns that in the corporate world of bureaucratic double-speak, "details are pushed down, and credit is pulled up." Without prejudice or malice, he ably shreds the myths of corporate excellence, accountability and supposed work ethic.

As a corporate middle manager, I cannot recommend this book enough to those about to enter, or who have newly entered into the corporate world. It should be a bible to those who are determined to stay in the corporate world, and an encouragement for those looking to jump ship.

This book takes what many of us traders, advisors and part time speculators have known for years; that when one hears or sees the word expert used in the media, beware.
Without hyperbole or hogwash, Taleb lays out a rock solid case as to why and how the global financial system is largely built on a foundation of fraudulent schemes disguised as high science and knowledge.
Black swans are events that cannot be predicted, but are planned for endlessly AFTER they have occurred. Only to have the experts blindsided by the next black swan.
Taleb doesn't say that we should never take risks, only that we should recognize the various kinds of risks for what they are. This isn't a book on how to trade, or how to make a million dollars, and in fact, it's only barely a book on finance at all.
I've recommended it to many people who have no interest in finance at all simply because his accurate treatment of the fraudulent expert disease we have in the media effects our lives in so many ways.
And by the way, the current financial situation is not a black swan. Read (listen to) the book to find out why.