Extremistan is the republic of the black swans where the improbable is always there, waiting to break into your destiny at the turn of any corner. The modern human tragedy is that we think we live in Mediocristan when in fact, we are citizens of Extremistan surrounded by flocks of black swans that our naturally-selected brains choose to ignore.

The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Taleb is an extraordinary book that combines fact and fiction, science and philosophy, history and mathematics. Some pages read like a sort of “Hume for Dummies” but written by Jorge Luis Borges. Quite enjoyable. The arguments are persuasive and even some of the author’s contradictions help to make his point. Without a doubt it’s a Black Swan and one of the best books I’ve read in a long time. You can find reviews in the Wall Street Journal, LA Times, and Financial Times.

Also, via Metafilter, here’s an early draft of chapter 16, The Bell Curve, That Great Intellectual Fraud, as well as, Taleb's "philisophical and literary notebook." You can also read comments about the book here, here, here and here (including Taleb’s responses).

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