Fooled by Randomness

塔勒布在《随机漫步的傻瓜》中指出：你的成功不见得是因为比其他人高明，而很可能是运气的结果。

开劳斯莱斯的摇滚乐手、把印象派画作抬到天价的投机客，拥有私人飞机的企业家和牙医相比，哪一个更富有？答案可能让你吃惊：牙医。因为他的职业生涯几乎没有什么风险，可能出现的灾难少之又少，也不会像投机客和企业家那样垮台，所以，牙医其实相当富有。

塔勒布生活的最大特点是不确定性，随机现象比比皆是，大起大落常常发生在须臾之间。当随机性的黑天鹅出现时，你可能一夜暴富，也可能在一次失误中回到原点。但我们天生倾向于忽视低概率事件的可能性，无论这些事件会引发多大的灾难。《随机漫步的傻瓜》以深刻独到的视角，告诉你这个随机世界的规律和运行方式。随机性虽然无法避免，但我们可以学着接受它。就像在投资市场上，如果一个小概率事件可以带来巨额回报，为什么不在这个事件上持续下注呢？换一种思维方式，做“随机漫步的傻瓜”，我们对人生的了解无疑将大为增进。

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.