Coping With Black Swan Events
The main idea in Taleb's book is not to attempt to predict black swan events, but to build robustness against negative ones that occur and be able to exploit positive ones. Taleb contends that banks and trading firms are very vulnerable to hazardous black swan events and are exposed to losses beyond those predicted by their defective models. On the subject of business in particular, Taleb is highly critical of the widespread use of the normal distribution model as the basis for calculating risk.
In the second edition of The Black Swan, Taleb provides "Ten Principles for a Black-Swan-Robust Society".
Taleb states that a black swan event depends on the observer. For example, what may be a black swan surprise for a turkey is not a black swan surprise to its butcher; hence the objective should be to "avoid being the turkey" by identifying areas of vulnerability in order to "turn the Black Swans white".
Read more about this topic: Black Swan Theory
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—bell hooks (b. c. 1955)
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That thou remember them, some claim as debt;
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This little moment mercifully gave,
Where I have seen across the twilight wave
The swan sail with her young beneath her wings.”
—George Meredith (1828–1909)
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—C. Wright Mills (1916–1962)