My book reviews: The Black Swan, Fooled by Randomness, Leadership is an Art

	The Black Swan – Nassim N. Taleb Amazon Kindle link Tiki link Rome wasn’t built in a day. But, gasp, it can be destroyed in a day. One disaster can eradicate a growing civilization. One pandemic disease can wipe out a developing continent. One adverse move in the market can destroy your accumulated wealth. Those are examples of Black Swans, rare events that possess tremendous effects on people’s lives. This book looks deep into such narrow topic, relevant stories surrounding the topic and the thinking behind it. It opens the mind of the readers to issues our brains are not naturally wired to process. While the author is a financial trader, this book is more about thinking and handling information than about trading techniques. In fact, the only portfolio recommendation is one with highly speculative instruments in combination with hyper-conservative bonds. Nevertheless, an awareness of Black Swans assists one in forming his or her trading strategies. After reading the book I am more comfortable and, as I hope I am, tolerant to sudden disruptions (e.g. Black Swans) in this turbulent environment we are going through. I give this book a full five-star.
	Fooled by Randomness – Nassim N. Taleb Amazon Kindle link Tiki link Conjure in your head the image of a glorious, victorious, succeeding person. We usually attribute one’s success to skills, traits, behaviors. We like stories about success. Now. What if it comes from luck ergo luck plays more important role in events than we think? What we are today are consequences of googols of particles in the universe and, is it impartial to attribute realization of events to a few explanations each? What if we are mistaken about our understanding of relationship and consequences? This book swamps me with that many questions about the world. Written in dry humorous, autobiographical, and poetic while no less pragmatic style, the book delivers one of the most thought-provoking challenges to the mind. This skepticism piece of work is not an easy read, especially for those determined in different school of thought. But as for me, I enjoy the experience of going through the mind-changing stories, scenarios and arguments from the book.
	Leadership is an Art – Max DePree Amazon Kindle link Tiki link This is one of the most inspirational and original book on leadership. The small book consists of chapters. Each chapter is short and precise, and tells the stories of different aspects of leadership during the time the author led his firm. The language employed is simple, straight-forward, honest and yet powerful. This is one of the cases where we don’t see advices on quick fixes to problems, or irrelevant buzzwords and jargons. We see the mind and heart of the leader. The chapter I happen to like most is "Pink ice in the urinals". It is both authoritative and entertaining. This is the book for anyone who seeks inspiration, and/or to be inspired.

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