• Fooled by Randomness

  • The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets
  • By: Nassim Nicholas Taleb
  • Narrated by: Sean Pratt
  • Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (5,654 ratings)

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Fooled by Randomness  By  cover art

Fooled by Randomness

By: Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Narrated by: Sean Pratt
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Publisher's summary

This audiobook is about luck, or more precisely, how we perceive and deal with luck in life and business. It is already a landmark work and its title has entered our vocabulary. In its second edition, Fooled by Randomness is now a cornerstone for anyone interested in random outcomes.

Set against the backdrop of the most conspicuous forum in which luck is mistaken for skill, the world of trading, this audiobook is a captivating insight into one of the least understood factors of all our lives. In an entertaining narrative style, the author succeeds in tackling three major intellectual issues: the problem of induction, the survivorship biases, and our genetic unfitness to the modern word. Taleb uses stories and anecdotes to illustrate our overestimation of causality and the heuristics that make us view the world as far more explainable than it actually is.

The audiobook is populated with an array of characters, some of whom have grasped, in their own way, the significance of chance: Yogi Berra, the baseball legend; Karl Popper, the philosopher of knowledge; Solon, the ancient world's wisest man; the modern financier George Soros; and the Greek voyager Ulysses. We also meet the fictional Nero, who seems to understand the role of randomness in his professional life, but who also falls victim to his own superstitious foolishness.

But the most recognizable character remains unnamed, the lucky fool in the right place at the right time - the embodiment of the "Survival of the Least Fit". Such individuals attract devoted followers who believe in their guru's insights and methods. But no one can replicate what is obtained through chance.

It may be impossible to guard against the vagaries of the Goddess Fortuna, but after listening to Fooled by Randomness we can be a little better prepared.

©2004 Nassim Nicholas Taleb (P)2008 Gildan Media Corp

Critic reviews

"[Taleb is] Wall Street's principal dissident....[ Fooled by Randomness] is to conventional Wall Street wisdom approximately what Martin Luther's ninety-nine theses were to the Catholic Church." (Malcolm Gladwell, The New Yorker)
"An articulate, wise, and humorous meditation on the nature of success and failure that anyone who wants a little more of the former would do well to consider." (Amazon.com)

What listeners say about Fooled by Randomness

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    4 out of 5 stars

Worth the effort

What made the experience of listening to Fooled by Randomness the most enjoyable?

I enjoyed the subject but the author doesn't organize the content very well, so it takes some effort to get what he's saying. I may read it again.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Nero Tulip

Have you listened to any of Sean Pratt’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Sean Pratt was not the narrator of my audio book. It was narrated by Lloyd James. I thought the narrator did a good job.

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4 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

very entertaining and eye opening

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

This is not only entertaining, but enlightening because it illustrates with easily understandable examples, how randomness affects all of us whether we realize it or not. By applying the principles to our own lives, we may be able to understand our behavior and behavior of others better while giving us an advantage over others who do not understand these things. The author is clever in using illustrations to depict some complex statistical ideas and he does so in a very practical and understandable way that even non-math people can understand.
This is not a dry mathematical book but a very enjoyable read/listen. I kept coming back to it again and again just like any good book that keeps you going until it is finished. I enjoyed The Black Swan and this book is no disappointment - definitely recommend.

If you could give Fooled by Randomness a new subtitle, what would it be?

Things you might not realize were randomness and how you deal with it in your life.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

Scattered short Essays

This is not a book, it is a scattered disjointed collection of musings about randomness and irrational thinking with stock brokering as the central metaphor to explain all concepts. Its like he wrote down various thoughts on the toilet bowl on various days some of which the paper should have been used at said instead of being included this book. This book has no flow even when he gets off a couple of good points here and there which makes it like a rap song with a lame beat, cheezy lyrics, but a couple good one liners. Predictably Irrational, Outliers, Buyology are all you need to have heard anything Taleb mentions and these books have flow,central themes, and original material that is universally appealing rather than skewed to Wall Street.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

A Black Swan Experience

The book was for me, a 'black swan experience'. Audible's statistical rating system does not allow for due credit. I would have given it 10 stars!

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Sanctimonious

This guy is eager to show us how clever he is, how may big words he can use and how ill prepared we, the readers, are to digest his pompous tripe. I quit after half the book.

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4 people found this helpful

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The Better Taleb?

I think of the two Taleb books I listened to, I prefer this. Both are interesting, with inspired and creative thought experiments and new ways of looking at problems and such, but the actor here did a better job of being likeable, and not coming off as vain and pretentious and holier-than-all. So it was easier to listen to and I think truer to who Taleb probably is. Other books of interest might be the "Freakonomics" books if you like this or wonder if you will like it. This does not guide you on how to get rich or predict the future, if that is what you are looking for. Its just a general interest intellectual book.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars

Nice idea, but poorly written

The central idea of this book is interesting, but I have not read a book this badly written in years. I fully agree with another review saying that there is about 10 pages of meat and the rest is just fat. The author jumps between subjects like a frantic circus clown spinning plates on sticks, but in the end you see there is only one plate, one stick and a whole lot of pottery shards. Much ado about nothing. There are so many references to topics coming later in the book that by the middle you can anticipate them and start lip-syncing along. The one part where I disagree with the other reviewers is in the narration - I found the narrator to be clear and well paced. But good narration and a good central concept don't make up for a simply feeble writing style. If this book was re-organised to follow a logical train of thought, leading to a definite conclusion, it would be worth reading. It would also be much, much shorter.

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  • M.
  • 10-15-19

An Author I'd Love to Meet...

As an Evolutionary Biologist by training, and a person ruled by chaos; on purpose mind you (I recognized the value randomness early on), this book was as validating as it was fascinating. Taleb is an author I would love to meet. I look forward to reading/listening to all his other books.

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  • m
  • 03-19-19

Content is Obvious-Often Better Lucky then Good.

This book is appropriately titled although the content is obvious and boring. If you have ever said, "Sometimes better lucky then good." then you already read the book. Disappointed as a investor friend had recommended the book. Going to ask to my money back.

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    2 out of 5 stars
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Recycled Anecdote, Random Facts, Self-Promo

The book does contain some interesting observations and ideas, but they could have been summarized on 2 pages.
The main point is that markets are random, but we often assume that they are predictable. Some traders get lucky, often for a long time, and we celebrate them as genius, but in reality it's just luck. And that luck runs out sooner or later. And when luck runs out, traders "blow up".
This rather simple message is delivered with a mix of random thoughts, old anecdotes from books by people who actually studied the topic (not just shared personal observations and thoughts as Taleb does), and a massive dose of self-promotion and bravado.

The book reads like this:
- Markets are random and one cannot beat the market.
- All people are fools, but many think they are geniuses.
- But I am the only one who recognizes that I am fool and because of that I am genius.
- I am so smart and so wise that I work when I want and enjoy my life.
- Traders and other Wall Street types are fools. I am better than that.
- Oh, and so you don't get too bored, here is a story from Kahneman's book and here is another anecdote from Gladwell's book.
- I don't have time to explain in detail what that Behavioral Economics theory is about and how exactly that Kahneman's experiment was conducted, but I will still mention them here to give some credibility to my writing.
- And here are a few of my personal opinions and thoughts that are not really related to the story, but I had them in the shower and I thought I'd share my wisdom here.

Conclusion:
If you read The Black Swan, Kahnaman's Thinking Fast and Thinking Slow and a Graldwell's Outliners, you won't find anything new in this book. If you have not read those other books, you won't understand much in this book as it does not provide enough details and context.

Still a good read.

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2 people found this helpful