A black swan is an unpredictable, rare, but nevertheless high impact event. The concept is easily demonstrated and well known but naming these events as. The hubris of predictions—and our perpetual surprise when the not-predicted happens—are themes of Nassim Nicholas Taleb's engaging new book, The Black Swan. The black swan (Cygnus atratus) is a large waterbird, a species of swan, which breeds mainly in the southeast and southwest regions of Australia. The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable is a book by the essayist, scholar and statistician Nassim Nicholas Taleb. It was released on April 17, 2007 by. Nassim Nicholas Taleb, expert on risk and randomness, discusses The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable, presented by Harvard Book Store. The Roots of Unfairness: the Black Swan in Arts and Literature Nassim Nicholas Taleb1 2nd Draft, November 2004 Literary Reseach/Recherche Litteraire, Journal of the An event or occurrence that deviates beyond what is normally expected of a situation and that would be extremely difficult to predict. This term was popularized by. The Black Swan: Second Edition: The Impact of the Highly Improbable: With a new section: On Robustness and Fragility (Incerto) [Nassim Nicholas Taleb] on Amazon.com. About The Book. The Black Swan: The Impact Of The Highly Improbable is a book that focuses on what has now come to be known as the Black Swan Theory. A black swan is a highly improbable event with three principal characteristics: It is unpredictable; it carries a massive impact; and, after the fact, we concoct an.