The Black Swan
The Only Book You Need to Read Right Now
It’s not just a book — it’s a paradigm shift.
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Until 1697, everyone believed that swans were only white, but a Dutch expedition discovered a population of black swans in Western Australia. It was a sensation and completely changed our views on these animals.
Before, people thought that ‘being white’ was one of the properties of every swan, but it’s not.
This story shows us how some unpredictable things in life can have a high impact on a specific sphere or even on the whole world.
In this article, I wanted to tell you about one of my favorite books and the one that will completely change your views on life, politics, science, business, and much more!
The book is called “The Black Swan” by Nassim Nicholas Taleb and explores some of the most interesting and crucial aspects of unpredictable things in our lives. So let’s dive into the most interesting key points in this book!
The Unknown is More Important than the Known
The bigger an event, the more unpredictable it gets and lies beyond our imagination. We want to have a plan for our whole lives, but only rarely can it come true.
The rarer the event, the less accurately we can estimate its degree of probability. Read that again
It’s pretty easy to predict an earthquake that goes once a year, and it’s impossible to predict an earthquake that goes only once per century or has probably never been before.
In other words, we’re not living in the ‘usual’ world. On any given day mysterious events can suddenly happen and completely change the direction of your life.
I’m talking about the recession, weather disasters, everyday catastrophes, etc.
If an event happened ten years ago, it can happen now and then. But new events come to this world each day, and no one could even think of them.
These are the things that we call ‘black swans’ and that we usually cannot predict, even if we try.
However, not every ‘black swan’ can ruin your life. Some of them can be positive; it’s only a…
