I’d agonise over whether to get a hot chocolate or a smoothie. I’ve faced this problem in cafes and restaurants many times before when it comes to deciding what to get. But, like Buridan, we can struggle to make a decision. This thought experiment is known as Buridan’s donkey and it highlights how irrational decision-making can be. The donkey is unable to make a decision and ends up dying of starvation and thirst as a result. It’s placed midway between a stack of hay and a pail of water.Ī donkey tends to move towards whatever is nearest to him, but in this case, both the food and the water are an equal distance away. Imagine a donkey is thirsty and hungry in equal measure.

Takeaway 3 – Significance and Causality have a big effect on how we determine eventsįooled By Randomness summary Takeaway 1 – Our emotions can be helpful when it comes to making a decision.Takeaway 2 – By looking at the winners, we forgot all those who lost.

Takeaway 1 – Our emotions can be helpful when it comes to making a decision.It provides a nice overview of his thinking and serves as an introduction to his other books, The Black Swan and Antifragile, which go into more detail about his ideas. If you’re looking to start reading his Incerto series this is the best book to start with. We tend to underestimate the role randomness plays in our lives, yet overestimate our knowledge and overlook the many cognitive biases we possess. What we attribute as a non-random outcome is often the result of randomness. It’s these tricks and illusions that Taleb discusses in his book. They don’t, it’s merely an illusion that plays tricks with our minds. Yet, people are either unaware of this fact, or truly believe clouds bear a striking resemblance to an elephant. What you see is a collection of clouds that appear like an elephant. An example Taleb uses is that of looking at the clouds and seeing shapes that aren’t really there.įor example, you may look up to the sky and see clouds that resemble an elephant. Taleb looks at the fallibility of human knowledge in this book. His books are among the most intriguing I’ve come across and I always feel like I learn something new even if I read 20 pages, never mind the whole book! Fooled By Randomness is the first book in Nassim Taleb’s Incerto series, which deals with asymmetries in life.

Fooled by randomness review