Reading list · 12 books
Nassim Nicholas Taleb's reading list
Former options trader turned scholar of uncertainty, author of the Incerto series ("Fooled by Randomness," "The Black Swan," "Antifragile," "Skin in the Game"). A combative, prolific reader, Taleb publishes his own recommended reading list and writes frequent book reviews/endorsements heavy on probability, history, and literary fiction.
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01
Daniel Kahneman
Taleb calls it "a landmark book in social thought, in the same league as The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith and The Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud."
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02
Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future
Peter Thiel
"When a risk taker writes a book, read it. In the case of Peter Thiel, read it twice. Or, to be safe, three times."
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03
Seeking Wisdom: From Darwin to Munger
Peter Bevelin
Taleb praises it as "a wonderful book on wisdom and decision-making, written by a wise decision-maker."
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04
Benoit Mandelbrot
On Taleb's recommended list; Mandelbrot's fractal critique of finance deeply shaped Taleb (he dedicated The Black Swan to Mandelbrot).
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06
John Coates
Recommended by Taleb for understanding the biology of risk-taking.
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07
William Easterly
Taleb endorses it for its critique of top-down development imposed by "experts."
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08
Mathematics: Its Content, Methods and Meaning
Aleksandrov, Kolmogorov & Lavrent'ev
Taleb praises it as "thinkers doing math, with remarkable clarity, minimal formalism."
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09
James Franklin
Recommended by Taleb on the history of probability and evidence before Pascal.
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10
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
His own volume of philosophical aphorisms within the Incerto.
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11
Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
His own central work arguing some things gain from volatility and stress.
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12
The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
His landmark book on rare, high-impact events and our blindness to them.
More on Nassim Nicholas Taleb's picks
Taleb maintains a categorized reading list on nassimtaleb.org and is a prolific Amazon reviewer, so most of his recommendations carry his own words. He praises Peter Thiel's "Zero to One" ("read it twice. Or, to be safe, three times"), Kahneman's "Thinking, Fast and Slow" (a landmark "in the same league as The Wealth of Nations"), and ranges from heavy math and neuroscience to Borges, Montaigne and thrillers.
