This article was originally published on January 9th, 2009. The global situation hasn't gotten any better... Go read this book. Right now. Then we’ll talk about it. OK, now we can dive in. There are few books that I’ve read in recently that have affected me as strongly as this book. A few years ago, I read Thomas’s The World is Flat and found that it was thoroughly researched and its arguments relatively sound and well-presented. He does the same thing in Hot, Flat, and Crowded, and the topic is much more critical then just economic globalization. In the course of my lifetime (32 years) I’ve watched the idea of being “green” … [Read more...]
The Black Swan – Nassim Nicholas Taleb
This article was originally published on May 29th, 2010. Since then, Nassim has continued to be controversial and thought-provoking. And I like having my thoughts provoked! Big Thought Definition of a black swan event: “First, it is an outlier, as it lies outside the realm of regular expectations, because nothing in the past can convincingly point to its possibility. Second, it carries an extreme impact. Third, in spite of its outlier status, human nature makes us concoct explanations for its occurrence after the fact, making it explainable and predictable. I stop and summarize the triplet: rarity, extreme impact, and retrospective … [Read more...]