Nassim Nicholas Taleb spent 21 years as a risk taker (quantitative trader)before becoming a researcher in philosophical, mathematical and (mostly)practical problems with probability.
Taleb is the author of a multivolume essay, the Incerto (The Black Swan,Fooled by Randomness, Antifragile, and Skin in the Game) covering broadfacets of uncertainty. His work has been published into 49 languages.
In addition to his trader life, Taleb has also written, as a backup of theIncerto, more than 70 scholarly papers in mathematical statistics, genetics,quantitative fi nance, statistical physics, philosophy, ethics, economics, &international aff airs, around the notion of risk and probability (grouped in theTechnical Incerto).
Taleb is currently Distinguished Professor of Risk Engineering at NYU’sTandon School of Engineering (retired) and, scientifi c advisor for UniversaInvestments. His current focus is on the properties of systems that canhandle disorder (“antifragile”).
Taleb refuses all honors and anything that “turns knowledge into a spectatorsport”.
Taleb traveled the conventional route of education to real-life and theory topractice in inverse sequence from the common one, moving from thepractical to the philosophical to the mathematical. He started as a trader,then got a doctorate in mid-trading career; he wrote literary books beforewriting technical papers, and his work became progressively more technicaland formal with time.