Terrible. Terrible. Terrible., 03 Nov 2008
This suffers from the same problems as the DVD.

It's derivative. There is absolutely nothing that hasn't been said over and over again.

It's simplistic. Life can be simple, but that doesn't mean you should treat your audience as if they are too.

It's repetitive. Get a variety of different figures in your niche to all say the same things using slightly different words.

It's nasty. Follow the philosophy through to it's logical conclusion and you are left with the concept that those who suffer have brought it upon themselves. There may be a grain of truth for some of the many unfortunates out there, but try telling a starving family in a poverty- and drought-stricken wilderness that really they ought to just change their attitudes and it'll all work out, then see which religion's version of hell you belong in.

It's insidious. They stack what I am sure they see as reasonable arguments one on top of the other, leading from premise to unfounded conclusion at such speed and in such a fashion that they gradually start to get in just through the continual exposure to the same old message.

The whole thing is trite, simple and hackneyed.
Still, it proves what good underground marketing can do. Don't be a sheep. Borrow it first, read it carefully, think on it, then have a good laugh, give it back and forget you ever heard of this tosh.

Promises what it cannot deliver., 31 Oct 2008
Should you wish to read this book with the sole intention of feeling both good about yourself and the world in general, then you will undoubtedly find that it lifts the spirits and enables you to view everything through the proverbial 'rose coloured spectacles'. If this is all you want to obtain from this book then my heartfelt good wishes to you. If, on the otherhand, you are desirous of creating miracles (as the blurb promises) then you will be sadly disappointed. To preclude all doubt to the point where you are able to effectively change the world around you, or your future for that matter, takes something that the majority of us simply cannot command. Jesus could do it - but then he was something a bit special. The rest of us, unfortunately, will have to be satisfied with the rose coloured spectacles. Miracles are not intended for the mundane.

Is the world controlled by a 1% elite?, 21 Oct 2008
The book and the video are the two sides of the same coin and I would advise you to follow the one or the other. I will suggest though that you concentrate on the video because the commentary between the quotations are nothing but the proof that some people need a lot more explanations and a lot of paraphrase to understand the basic meaning. Are we all without limits? And that is going to be my very first remark. From my long experience I know that some people are physically handicapped, or mentally handicapped, or psychologically handicapped, or with many hurdles on their road and around them. You should see the state of some of those children born to deep alcoholics or drug addicts. Or what about children with a severe genetic disparagement? And I refuse to say they are just disabled, or differently-abled. They are handicapped by being materialistically in their very body or mind at a disadvantage that will prevent them from doing what most people around them will be able to do. If the mind is intact, and working on positive thinking is the only way for these people, then they can compensate their physical limitations with their spiritual achievements. But you can't run in the standard Olympics without legs just like a bicycle will not run without wheels. And this time, in most of these situations, one will not be able to excel, full stop and period, and if one can excel in one particular field in which he is not or is less limited, it won't be without the help of other people around them. You cannot think positive if there is no signs along that road. The second remark is positive. Apart from these special cases, everyone, absolutely everyone can excel somewhere and that excellence can only be reached if it is targeted, looked for and built. Positive thinking, education, understanding that the pleasure of such achievements is in the goal when reached and not in the effort you have to accomplish, even if for those who will reach the highest points this very effort is a pleasure, the pleasure of the effort itself. A runner has to train day in and day out and that is never, absolutely never a plain entertaining phase of relaxation and abandon. Physical pleasure requires sweat and heart speed. But if one does not set their minds on the aim they are going to strive towards, they will never reach it. Success is enormously in the mind, in the conscious and subconscious motivation of the candidate. Yet it is absolutely false to say that man has no limits. Humanity, and every member of it, has always been limited historically and no one could think plasma physics or quantum computers under Julius Caesar. Each historical period produces its possible fields of investigation that are limited because in a later historical period those fields of investigation will always be vaster, larger, deeper, more intense. Or then the author is speaking metaphorically of man as the representative of humanity in its cosmic history. But that is not helping any individual who is striving to achieve something in his own life. Icarus did try to fly but wax wings were kind of primitive. Then my third and last remark will be a question: why only ONE percent of humanity controls NINETY-SIX percent of wealth? If this is a fact, and it is, it is the proof that all men are not equal in facts but only in rights, and that is so by our collective decision to say so. But one thing is sure: thinking negatively is never good. Think of McCain and Palin and their negative campaigning. Think of all the anarchists of the world who have never achieved the slightest beginning of their dream which is only a negative picture of the world the way it is. If you criticize the world systematically, then your dream becomes the inverted image of this world, hence a negative picture of reality, and that will never guide or inspire people into desiring such a future. When I don't like something I do not ask for the reverse. I wonder what the situation is, what the possibilities are and if another solution is possible and which one. Then I will think positively along that objective, or rather as objective as possible, line, but to demand black because what I don't like is white, or to require red because what I don't like is blue is primitive negative thinking. That kind of realism and collective striving is absent from this book or video and that is a shame because they forget attraction holds the world and the cosmos up because it is always counterbalanced by repulsion. Otherwise the moon would have fallen onto the earth a long very long time ago, even if this repulsion is itself the product of attractions that are standing abreast and against the attraction of the earth. The apple did not fall as long as the stem was strong enough and the apple light enough for the stem not to break. The author of this book or video seems to have forgotten that the cosmos is a complex system of opposed spheres and when a weak point appears, then a catastrophe develops in that weak point, and the earth is doomed sooner or later in cosmic time to disappear, just like the sun which will one day have burned all itself fuel.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines


Dreadful Twaddle, 16 Oct 2008
After you cut though all the flannel, the secret is revealed. If you think about things they will come to you. No they won't. It takes dedication, persistence and hard work to achieve success, get rich, lose weight or achieve whatever your goal is. This book is delusional and misleading. The elements on positive thinking are fine but they are better expressed in many other self-help books. The 'secret' itself is laughable.

The Secret and The Scam, 11 Oct 2008
A friend of mine bought me this book for my birthday, explaining that it was a best selling spiritual read, so I was looking forward to what it had to say. I can honestly say I was unimpressed from the start. There was this build to this huge life changing 'secret' and it was like waiting for a huge explosion that never actually went off.

This whole Secret is based on wishful, dillusional thnking. It claims that if you want to have money, believe that you will have money and it will come to you. If you want to lose weight, believe that you're losing weight and it will happen. It rarely ever mentions that you have to put work in for these things to happen. In a good way this book does allow people to focus on what they want in life and to focus on the positive, but having a good life, having money and having good relationships requires some work on our part, not just repeating something in our heads and hoping the Universe will deliver. That's just lazy thinking. I gained a lot more from listening to Anthony Robbins CD's then I did from this book. And yes, I'm aware that he's in it for the money too.

This book also spent a lot of time advertising the film version, so there are a lot of people making getting rich from this book. Unfortunately it won't be the readers.

Terrible. Terrible. Terrible., 03 Nov 2008
This suffers from the same problems as the DVD.

It's derivative. There is absolutely nothing that hasn't been said over and over again.

It's simplistic. Life can be simple, but that doesn't mean you should treat your audience as if they are too.

It's repetitive. Get a variety of different figures in your niche to all say the same things using slightly different words.

It's nasty. Follow the philosophy through to it's logical conclusion and you are left with the concept that those who suffer have brought it upon themselves. There may be a grain of truth for some of the many unfortunates out there, but try telling a starving family in a poverty- and drought-stricken wilderness that really they ought to just change their attitudes and it'll all work out, then see which religion's version of hell you belong in.

It's insidious. They stack what I am sure they see as reasonable arguments one on top of the other, leading from premise to unfounded conclusion at such speed and in such a fashion that they gradually start to get in just through the continual exposure to the same old message.

The whole thing is trite, simple and hackneyed.
Still, it proves what good underground marketing can do. Don't be a sheep. Borrow it first, read it carefully, think on it, then have a good laugh, give it back and forget you ever heard of this tosh.

Promises what it cannot deliver., 31 Oct 2008
Should you wish to read this book with the sole intention of feeling both good about yourself and the world in general, then you will undoubtedly find that it lifts the spirits and enables you to view everything through the proverbial 'rose coloured spectacles'. If this is all you want to obtain from this book then my heartfelt good wishes to you. If, on the otherhand, you are desirous of creating miracles (as the blurb promises) then you will be sadly disappointed. To preclude all doubt to the point where you are able to effectively change the world around you, or your future for that matter, takes something that the majority of us simply cannot command. Jesus could do it - but then he was something a bit special. The rest of us, unfortunately, will have to be satisfied with the rose coloured spectacles. Miracles are not intended for the mundane.

Is the world controlled by a 1% elite?, 21 Oct 2008
The book and the video are the two sides of the same coin and I would advise you to follow the one or the other. I will suggest though that you concentrate on the video because the commentary between the quotations are nothing but the proof that some people need a lot more explanations and a lot of paraphrase to understand the basic meaning. Are we all without limits? And that is going to be my very first remark. From my long experience I know that some people are physically handicapped, or mentally handicapped, or psychologically handicapped, or with many hurdles on their road and around them. You should see the state of some of those children born to deep alcoholics or drug addicts. Or what about children with a severe genetic disparagement? And I refuse to say they are just disabled, or differently-abled. They are handicapped by being materialistically in their very body or mind at a disadvantage that will prevent them from doing what most people around them will be able to do. If the mind is intact, and working on positive thinking is the only way for these people, then they can compensate their physical limitations with their spiritual achievements. But you can't run in the standard Olympics without legs just like a bicycle will not run without wheels. And this time, in most of these situations, one will not be able to excel, full stop and period, and if one can excel in one particular field in which he is not or is less limited, it won't be without the help of other people around them. You cannot think positive if there is no signs along that road. The second remark is positive. Apart from these special cases, everyone, absolutely everyone can excel somewhere and that excellence can only be reached if it is targeted, looked for and built. Positive thinking, education, understanding that the pleasure of such achievements is in the goal when reached and not in the effort you have to accomplish, even if for those who will reach the highest points this very effort is a pleasure, the pleasure of the effort itself. A runner has to train day in and day out and that is never, absolutely never a plain entertaining phase of relaxation and abandon. Physical pleasure requires sweat and heart speed. But if one does not set their minds on the aim they are going to strive towards, they will never reach it. Success is enormously in the mind, in the conscious and subconscious motivation of the candidate. Yet it is absolutely false to say that man has no limits. Humanity, and every member of it, has always been limited historically and no one could think plasma physics or quantum computers under Julius Caesar. Each historical period produces its possible fields of investigation that are limited because in a later historical period those fields of investigation will always be vaster, larger, deeper, more intense. Or then the author is speaking metaphorically of man as the representative of humanity in its cosmic history. But that is not helping any individual who is striving to achieve something in his own life. Icarus did try to fly but wax wings were kind of primitive. Then my third and last remark will be a question: why only ONE percent of humanity controls NINETY-SIX percent of wealth? If this is a fact, and it is, it is the proof that all men are not equal in facts but only in rights, and that is so by our collective decision to say so. But one thing is sure: thinking negatively is never good. Think of McCain and Palin and their negative campaigning. Think of all the anarchists of the world who have never achieved the slightest beginning of their dream which is only a negative picture of the world the way it is. If you criticize the world systematically, then your dream becomes the inverted image of this world, hence a negative picture of reality, and that will never guide or inspire people into desiring such a future. When I don't like something I do not ask for the reverse. I wonder what the situation is, what the possibilities are and if another solution is possible and which one. Then I will think positively along that objective, or rather as objective as possible, line, but to demand black because what I don't like is white, or to require red because what I don't like is blue is primitive negative thinking. That kind of realism and collective striving is absent from this book or video and that is a shame because they forget attraction holds the world and the cosmos up because it is always counterbalanced by repulsion. Otherwise the moon would have fallen onto the earth a long very long time ago, even if this repulsion is itself the product of attractions that are standing abreast and against the attraction of the earth. The apple did not fall as long as the stem was strong enough and the apple light enough for the stem not to break. The author of this book or video seems to have forgotten that the cosmos is a complex system of opposed spheres and when a weak point appears, then a catastrophe develops in that weak point, and the earth is doomed sooner or later in cosmic time to disappear, just like the sun which will one day have burned all itself fuel.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines


Dreadful Twaddle, 16 Oct 2008
After you cut though all the flannel, the secret is revealed. If you think about things they will come to you. No they won't. It takes dedication, persistence and hard work to achieve success, get rich, lose weight or achieve whatever your goal is. This book is delusional and misleading. The elements on positive thinking are fine but they are better expressed in many other self-help books. The 'secret' itself is laughable.

The Secret and The Scam, 11 Oct 2008
A friend of mine bought me this book for my birthday, explaining that it was a best selling spiritual read, so I was looking forward to what it had to say. I can honestly say I was unimpressed from the start. There was this build to this huge life changing 'secret' and it was like waiting for a huge explosion that never actually went off.

This whole Secret is based on wishful, dillusional thnking. It claims that if you want to have money, believe that you will have money and it will come to you. If you want to lose weight, believe that you're losing weight and it will happen. It rarely ever mentions that you have to put work in for these things to happen. In a good way this book does allow people to focus on what they want in life and to focus on the positive, but having a good life, having money and having good relationships requires some work on our part, not just repeating something in our heads and hoping the Universe will deliver. That's just lazy thinking. I gained a lot more from listening to Anthony Robbins CD's then I did from this book. And yes, I'm aware that he's in it for the money too.

This book also spent a lot of time advertising the film version, so there are a lot of people making getting rich from this book. Unfortunately it won't be the readers.

Partial plagiarism of his central thesis?, 02 Nov 2008
Reading these reviews leads me immediately to the realisation that this work may possibly be little better than plagiarism. Siméon-Denis Poisson first examined the statistical modelling of low-probability events in 1838, within a much wider corpus of scientific research in pure and applied natural and social sciences. One immediate conclusion is that the probability of low-odds events occurring (where there is no impedement to frequent possible events) is much higher than normal binomial probability suggests. As this is the heart of Taleb's thesis, he's at best reinvented the wheel.
On the basis of his introduction, examining the work of Umberto Eco, I suspect he falls into a trap of his own pretentiousness, insofar as Professor Eco sometimes espouses hermetic doctrines in his fictional works established long before our days by the Vatican and other similar bodies. His is not the work of a freelance research student, but of an acolyte, affirmed by his other publications of a non-fictional character, displaying the formation of his mentation. It is not therefore appropriate to suggest that there is much of a serendipitous nature about his well-researched, yet doctrinally conformist, theses, and that disables Taleb's first shuffle.
I therefore conclude that as both foundations to his thesis, namely his starting point and the incremental progression thenceforward, appear to be weak, this may not arrive at any logically coherent conclusions at all. Those of a religious disposition might choose to develop that objection further, insofar as the inexplicable Poisson anomaly has sometimes been argued as a scientifically-rigourous case for a non-bounded ontological eidos (or in plain language, "there are more things in heaven and earth, Nicholas, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."), but each to his own: at the very least, he is not doing fresh research by a very long way, as this was very old hat in our market modelling in the 1980s.

Scintillating , 25 Oct 2008
One of the most intelligent pieces of writing I have come across in my reading career.

It opens up some many new ways of viewing life and its events. Delivered with a delightful touch of arrogance, sudden humour, and iconoclastic precision - the book unearths a paradigm which is so overarchingly pervasive yet consciously ignored by people.

The author's tribute to, and coverage of Benoit Mandelbrot, along with the pooh-poohing of the 'normal' model of reality is a salient highlight, and should not be missed by any serious empiricist.

The book is a black swan.

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition..., 21 Oct 2008
This book is a black swan because against all the odds it got published. It has one idea swollen unappealingly to almost 400 pages. It is full of stereotypes, rich in "imaginative" anecdotes and insufferably pompous. If you want to read about chance and probability then try Ian Stewart; for Chance and Necessity read Jacques Monod (1972).

most insightful book I've read in a long time, 18 Oct 2008
Yes, I understand the criticism that Mr Taleb is full of himself - undoubtedly it shows throughout the book.
However, the amount of insights he provides and the many different angles in which he looks at the problem hammers the point through our hard-wired brains, and in my case, provided a fundamental change to the way I think and approach problems.
Definitely, a must read book.

The Emperor has no clothes, 10 Oct 2008
The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable
A highly disappointing text from an erudite and capable author. The book is fallacious, misleading and mischievous. The abuse of simple statistical distributions alone warrants not taking it seriously. It is oversold by the blurb and does not do what it says on the cover. Extremely disappointing.

Terrible. Terrible. Terrible., 03 Nov 2008
This suffers from the same problems as the DVD.

It's derivative. There is absolutely nothing that hasn't been said over and over again.

It's simplistic. Life can be simple, but that doesn't mean you should treat your audience as if they are too.

It's repetitive. Get a variety of different figures in your niche to all say the same things using slightly different words.

It's nasty. Follow the philosophy through to it's logical conclusion and you are left with the concept that those who suffer have brought it upon themselves. There may be a grain of truth for some of the many unfortunates out there, but try telling a starving family in a poverty- and drought-stricken wilderness that really they ought to just change their attitudes and it'll all work out, then see which religion's version of hell you belong in.

It's insidious. They stack what I am sure they see as reasonable arguments one on top of the other, leading from premise to unfounded conclusion at such speed and in such a fashion that they gradually start to get in just through the continual exposure to the same old message.

The whole thing is trite, simple and hackneyed.
Still, it proves what good underground marketing can do. Don't be a sheep. Borrow it first, read it carefully, think on it, then have a good laugh, give it back and forget you ever heard of this tosh.

Promises what it cannot deliver., 31 Oct 2008
Should you wish to read this book with the sole intention of feeling both good about yourself and the world in general, then you will undoubtedly find that it lifts the spirits and enables you to view everything through the proverbial 'rose coloured spectacles'. If this is all you want to obtain from this book then my heartfelt good wishes to you. If, on the otherhand, you are desirous of creating miracles (as the blurb promises) then you will be sadly disappointed. To preclude all doubt to the point where you are able to effectively change the world around you, or your future for that matter, takes something that the majority of us simply cannot command. Jesus could do it - but then he was something a bit special. The rest of us, unfortunately, will have to be satisfied with the rose coloured spectacles. Miracles are not intended for the mundane.

Is the world controlled by a 1% elite?, 21 Oct 2008
The book and the video are the two sides of the same coin and I would advise you to follow the one or the other. I will suggest though that you concentrate on the video because the commentary between the quotations are nothing but the proof that some people need a lot more explanations and a lot of paraphrase to understand the basic meaning. Are we all without limits? And that is going to be my very first remark. From my long experience I know that some people are physically handicapped, or mentally handicapped, or psychologically handicapped, or with many hurdles on their road and around them. You should see the state of some of those children born to deep alcoholics or drug addicts. Or what about children with a severe genetic disparagement? And I refuse to say they are just disabled, or differently-abled. They are handicapped by being materialistically in their very body or mind at a disadvantage that will prevent them from doing what most people around them will be able to do. If the mind is intact, and working on positive thinking is the only way for these people, then they can compensate their physical limitations with their spiritual achievements. But you can't run in the standard Olympics without legs just like a bicycle will not run without wheels. And this time, in most of these situations, one will not be able to excel, full stop and period, and if one can excel in one particular field in which he is not or is less limited, it won't be without the help of other people around them. You cannot think positive if there is no signs along that road. The second remark is positive. Apart from these special cases, everyone, absolutely everyone can excel somewhere and that excellence can only be reached if it is targeted, looked for and built. Positive thinking, education, understanding that the pleasure of such achievements is in the goal when reached and not in the effort you have to accomplish, even if for those who will reach the highest points this very effort is a pleasure, the pleasure of the effort itself. A runner has to train day in and day out and that is never, absolutely never a plain entertaining phase of relaxation and abandon. Physical pleasure requires sweat and heart speed. But if one does not set their minds on the aim they are going to strive towards, they will never reach it. Success is enormously in the mind, in the conscious and subconscious motivation of the candidate. Yet it is absolutely false to say that man has no limits. Humanity, and every member of it, has always been limited historically and no one could think plasma physics or quantum computers under Julius Caesar. Each historical period produces its possible fields of investigation that are limited because in a later historical period those fields of investigation will always be vaster, larger, deeper, more intense. Or then the author is speaking metaphorically of man as the representative of humanity in its cosmic history. But that is not helping any individual who is striving to achieve something in his own life. Icarus did try to fly but wax wings were kind of primitive. Then my third and last remark will be a question: why only ONE percent of humanity controls NINETY-SIX percent of wealth? If this is a fact, and it is, it is the proof that all men are not equal in facts but only in rights, and that is so by our collective decision to say so. But one thing is sure: thinking negatively is never good. Think of McCain and Palin and their negative campaigning. Think of all the anarchists of the world who have never achieved the slightest beginning of their dream which is only a negative picture of the world the way it is. If you criticize the world systematically, then your dream becomes the inverted image of this world, hence a negative picture of reality, and that will never guide or inspire people into desiring such a future. When I don't like something I do not ask for the reverse. I wonder what the situation is, what the possibilities are and if another solution is possible and which one. Then I will think positively along that objective, or rather as objective as possible, line, but to demand black because what I don't like is white, or to require red because what I don't like is blue is primitive negative thinking. That kind of realism and collective striving is absent from this book or video and that is a shame because they forget attraction holds the world and the cosmos up because it is always counterbalanced by repulsion. Otherwise the moon would have fallen onto the earth a long very long time ago, even if this repulsion is itself the product of attractions that are standing abreast and against the attraction of the earth. The apple did not fall as long as the stem was strong enough and the apple light enough for the stem not to break. The author of this book or video seems to have forgotten that the cosmos is a complex system of opposed spheres and when a weak point appears, then a catastrophe develops in that weak point, and the earth is doomed sooner or later in cosmic time to disappear, just like the sun which will one day have burned all itself fuel.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines


Dreadful Twaddle, 16 Oct 2008
After you cut though all the flannel, the secret is revealed. If you think about things they will come to you. No they won't. It takes dedication, persistence and hard work to achieve success, get rich, lose weight or achieve whatever your goal is. This book is delusional and misleading. The elements on positive thinking are fine but they are better expressed in many other self-help books. The 'secret' itself is laughable.

The Secret and The Scam, 11 Oct 2008
A friend of mine bought me this book for my birthday, explaining that it was a best selling spiritual read, so I was looking forward to what it had to say. I can honestly say I was unimpressed from the start. There was this build to this huge life changing 'secret' and it was like waiting for a huge explosion that never actually went off.

This whole Secret is based on wishful, dillusional thnking. It claims that if you want to have money, believe that you will have money and it will come to you. If you want to lose weight, believe that you're losing weight and it will happen. It rarely ever mentions that you have to put work in for these things to happen. In a good way this book does allow people to focus on what they want in life and to focus on the positive, but having a good life, having money and having good relationships requires some work on our part, not just repeating something in our heads and hoping the Universe will deliver. That's just lazy thinking. I gained a lot more from listening to Anthony Robbins CD's then I did from this book. And yes, I'm aware that he's in it for the money too.

This book also spent a lot of time advertising the film version, so there are a lot of people making getting rich from this book. Unfortunately it won't be the readers.

Partial plagiarism of his central thesis?, 02 Nov 2008
Reading these reviews leads me immediately to the realisation that this work may possibly be little better than plagiarism. Siméon-Denis Poisson first examined the statistical modelling of low-probability events in 1838, within a much wider corpus of scientific research in pure and applied natural and social sciences. One immediate conclusion is that the probability of low-odds events occurring (where there is no impedement to frequent possible events) is much higher than normal binomial probability suggests. As this is the heart of Taleb's thesis, he's at best reinvented the wheel.
On the basis of his introduction, examining the work of Umberto Eco, I suspect he falls into a trap of his own pretentiousness, insofar as Professor Eco sometimes espouses hermetic doctrines in his fictional works established long before our days by the Vatican and other similar bodies. His is not the work of a freelance research student, but of an acolyte, affirmed by his other publications of a non-fictional character, displaying the formation of his mentation. It is not therefore appropriate to suggest that there is much of a serendipitous nature about his well-researched, yet doctrinally conformist, theses, and that disables Taleb's first shuffle.
I therefore conclude that as both foundations to his thesis, namely his starting point and the incremental progression thenceforward, appear to be weak, this may not arrive at any logically coherent conclusions at all. Those of a religious disposition might choose to develop that objection further, insofar as the inexplicable Poisson anomaly has sometimes been argued as a scientifically-rigourous case for a non-bounded ontological eidos (or in plain language, "there are more things in heaven and earth, Nicholas, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."), but each to his own: at the very least, he is not doing fresh research by a very long way, as this was very old hat in our market modelling in the 1980s.

Scintillating , 25 Oct 2008
One of the most intelligent pieces of writing I have come across in my reading career.

It opens up some many new ways of viewing life and its events. Delivered with a delightful touch of arrogance, sudden humour, and iconoclastic precision - the book unearths a paradigm which is so overarchingly pervasive yet consciously ignored by people.

The author's tribute to, and coverage of Benoit Mandelbrot, along with the pooh-poohing of the 'normal' model of reality is a salient highlight, and should not be missed by any serious empiricist.

The book is a black swan.

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition..., 21 Oct 2008
This book is a black swan because against all the odds it got published. It has one idea swollen unappealingly to almost 400 pages. It is full of stereotypes, rich in "imaginative" anecdotes and insufferably pompous. If you want to read about chance and probability then try Ian Stewart; for Chance and Necessity read Jacques Monod (1972).

most insightful book I've read in a long time, 18 Oct 2008
Yes, I understand the criticism that Mr Taleb is full of himself - undoubtedly it shows throughout the book.
However, the amount of insights he provides and the many different angles in which he looks at the problem hammers the point through our hard-wired brains, and in my case, provided a fundamental change to the way I think and approach problems.
Definitely, a must read book.

The Emperor has no clothes, 10 Oct 2008
The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable
A highly disappointing text from an erudite and capable author. The book is fallacious, misleading and mischievous. The abuse of simple statistical distributions alone warrants not taking it seriously. It is oversold by the blurb and does not do what it says on the cover. Extremely disappointing.

Literally Saved my life!!, 03 Nov 2008
Before i purchased this book i was suffering from the most horrendous anxiety attacks and what i now know as depression.I was going to see a councilor to help me work through my problems but i found this no help.I was utterly desperate and then my GP recommended this book.By this time i was so bad i could barely leave the house.I was feeling so low taking my life seemed the only option then i discovered this book and it has literally saved my life.I am more positive i think more rationally and have a much more positive outlook on life.Please please if your feeling as desperate as i did just give this book a go what do you have to lose 10 pounds?Let this book help you on a new and more positive journey through your new and better life!

very practical, 22 Mar 2008
I'm no expert on cbt or any type of psychology and I'm always slightly wary. CBT, however, was recommended to me by a psychologist to assist me to help my client group - troubled young people. I love the 'for Dummies' series as they are really easy to read but provide you with quite a broad knowledge for a layman. There is a wealth of sound practical advice in this book for everybody and I can't believe how much I'm learning about myself and my incorrect thinking and its effects. This book requires a lot of concentration (although the style of writing is easy) and effort to think the material through and also to complete the exercises but it really is life-changing. I don't know if it works really well for serious mental health problems but it is certainly working for me and I will most definitely be presenting the practices to the young people I work with.

the best approach to solving life issues, 07 Mar 2008
The cognitive approach to the mind is by far the most empirically sound way to deal with emotional problems. This book helps us to understand the science behind the method. I would only add the book FREE YOUR MIND by Anthony Stultz as a companion. Stultz shows us the ancient roots of CBT in Eastern wisdom and offers and updated system that incorporates the best of Buddhist insight and Western technique.

Stop ruminating , start living , 18 Feb 2008
I know nothing about clinical depression but it is much bandied about. We all feel down from time to time and I am sure there are are those amongst us who hide behind this so as to wallow in their own self pity.

The most common thing you can do and I see it in both myself and other is ruminative thinking. That is allowing things to go round and round in your head. I see it with people who will not make a decision for fear of making the wrong decision. They defend this behaviour because they think by taking no decision they will not make another mistake.

It was the most important lesson from this book. Do not indulge in ruminative thinking.

Fill your life up with things to do so that you do not have time to keep thinking about all your problems .

I also liked the section of spotting errors in your thinking . It is easy to think somehow you are being a realist by accepting current cynical opinions such as turning molehills into mountains, overgeneralising and not thinking efficiently .

For the last few years I have had a set of goals in both my private and business life. It gives me plenty to do and stops me ruminating about my past " failures".

Also I try and practice mindfulness from meditation whereby you live in the moment and experience what you are doing right now.It is a form of concentration and can take you mind off the past and the future. dealing with the present is a full time occupation


A very good informative book on what could be a complicated subject. A must read who want to change their lives.

Excellent, 22 Nov 2007
This book is based on the NLP principles that work so excellently in "The Ultimate Guide To Cosmic Ordering, Empower Your Destiny: Take Control of Your Life" by Andronicos Andronicou. I found it to be full of insight. It is written with clarity and simplicity. I believe it to be a must have if you want to change your life.

Terrible. Terrible. Terrible., 03 Nov 2008
This suffers from the same problems as the DVD.

It's derivative. There is absolutely nothing that hasn't been said over and over again.

It's simplistic. Life can be simple, but that doesn't mean you should treat your audience as if they are too.

It's repetitive. Get a variety of different figures in your niche to all say the same things using slightly different words.

It's nasty. Follow the philosophy through to it's logical conclusion and you are left with the concept that those who suffer have brought it upon themselves. There may be a grain of truth for some of the many unfortunates out there, but try telling a starving family in a poverty- and drought-stricken wilderness that really they ought to just change their attitudes and it'll all work out, then see which religion's version of hell you belong in.

It's insidious. They stack what I am sure they see as reasonable arguments one on top of the other, leading from premise to unfounded conclusion at such speed and in such a fashion that they gradually start to get in just through the continual exposure to the same old message.

The whole thing is trite, simple and hackneyed.
Still, it proves what good underground marketing can do. Don't be a sheep. Borrow it first, read it carefully, think on it, then have a good laugh, give it back and forget you ever heard of this tosh.

Promises what it cannot deliver., 31 Oct 2008
Should you wish to read this book with the sole intention of feeling both good about yourself and the world in general, then you will undoubtedly find that it lifts the spirits and enables you to view everything through the proverbial 'rose coloured spectacles'. If this is all you want to obtain from this book then my heartfelt good wishes to you. If, on the otherhand, you are desirous of creating miracles (as the blurb promises) then you will be sadly disappointed. To preclude all doubt to the point where you are able to effectively change the world around you, or your future for that matter, takes something that the majority of us simply cannot command. Jesus could do it - but then he was something a bit special. The rest of us, unfortunately, will have to be satisfied with the rose coloured spectacles. Miracles are not intended for the mundane.

Is the world controlled by a 1% elite?, 21 Oct 2008
The book and the video are the two sides of the same coin and I would advise you to follow the one or the other. I will suggest though that you concentrate on the video because the commentary between the quotations are nothing but the proof that some people need a lot more explanations and a lot of paraphrase to understand the basic meaning. Are we all without limits? And that is going to be my very first remark. From my long experience I know that some people are physically handicapped, or mentally handicapped, or psychologically handicapped, or with many hurdles on their road and around them. You should see the state of some of those children born to deep alcoholics or drug addicts. Or what about children with a severe genetic disparagement? And I refuse to say they are just disabled, or differently-abled. They are handicapped by being materialistically in their very body or mind at a disadvantage that will prevent them from doing what most people around them will be able to do. If the mind is intact, and working on positive thinking is the only way for these people, then they can compensate their physical limitations with their spiritual achievements. But you can't run in the standard Olympics without legs just like a bicycle will not run without wheels. And this time, in most of these situations, one will not be able to excel, full stop and period, and if one can excel in one particular field in which he is not or is less limited, it won't be without the help of other people around them. You cannot think positive if there is no signs along that road. The second remark is positive. Apart from these special cases, everyone, absolutely everyone can excel somewhere and that excellence can only be reached if it is targeted, looked for and built. Positive thinking, education, understanding that the pleasure of such achievements is in the goal when reached and not in the effort you have to accomplish, even if for those who will reach the highest points this very effort is a pleasure, the pleasure of the effort itself. A runner has to train day in and day out and that is never, absolutely never a plain entertaining phase of relaxation and abandon. Physical pleasure requires sweat and heart speed. But if one does not set their minds on the aim they are going to strive towards, they will never reach it. Success is enormously in the mind, in the conscious and subconscious motivation of the candidate. Yet it is absolutely false to say that man has no limits. Humanity, and every member of it, has always been limited historically and no one could think plasma physics or quantum computers under Julius Caesar. Each historical period produces its possible fields of investigation that are limited because in a later historical period those fields of investigation will always be vaster, larger, deeper, more intense. Or then the author is speaking metaphorically of man as the representative of humanity in its cosmic history. But that is not helping any individual who is striving to achieve something in his own life. Icarus did try to fly but wax wings were kind of primitive. Then my third and last remark will be a question: why only ONE percent of humanity controls NINETY-SIX percent of wealth? If this is a fact, and it is, it is the proof that all men are not equal in facts but only in rights, and that is so by our collective decision to say so. But one thing is sure: thinking negatively is never good. Think of McCain and Palin and their negative campaigning. Think of all the anarchists of the world who have never achieved the slightest beginning of their dream which is only a negative picture of the world the way it is. If you criticize the world systematically, then your dream becomes the inverted image of this world, hence a negative picture of reality, and that will never guide or inspire people into desiring such a future. When I don't like something I do not ask for the reverse. I wonder what the situation is, what the possibilities are and if another solution is possible and which one. Then I will think positively along that objective, or rather as objective as possible, line, but to demand black because what I don't like is white, or to require red because what I don't like is blue is primitive negative thinking. That kind of realism and collective striving is absent from this book or video and that is a shame because they forget attraction holds the world and the cosmos up because it is always counterbalanced by repulsion. Otherwise the moon would have fallen onto the earth a long very long time ago, even if this repulsion is itself the product of attractions that are standing abreast and against the attraction of the earth. The apple did not fall as long as the stem was strong enough and the apple light enough for the stem not to break. The author of this book or video seems to have forgotten that the cosmos is a complex system of opposed spheres and when a weak point appears, then a catastrophe develops in that weak point, and the earth is doomed sooner or later in cosmic time to disappear, just like the sun which will one day have burned all itself fuel.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines


Dreadful Twaddle, 16 Oct 2008
After you cut though all the flannel, the secret is revealed. If you think about things they will come to you. No they won't. It takes dedication, persistence and hard work to achieve success, get rich, lose weight or achieve whatever your goal is. This book is delusional and misleading. The elements on positive thinking are fine but they are better expressed in many other self-help books. The 'secret' itself is laughable.

The Secret and The Scam, 11 Oct 2008
A friend of mine bought me this book for my birthday, explaining that it was a best selling spiritual read, so I was looking forward to what it had to say. I can honestly say I was unimpressed from the start. There was this build to this huge life changing 'secret' and it was like waiting for a huge explosion that never actually went off.

This whole Secret is based on wishful, dillusional thnking. It claims that if you want to have money, believe that you will have money and it will come to you. If you want to lose weight, believe that you're losing weight and it will happen. It rarely ever mentions that you have to put work in for these things to happen. In a good way this book does allow people to focus on what they want in life and to focus on the positive, but having a good life, having money and having good relationships requires some work on our part, not just repeating something in our heads and hoping the Universe will deliver. That's just lazy thinking. I gained a lot more from listening to Anthony Robbins CD's then I did from this book. And yes, I'm aware that he's in it for the money too.

This book also spent a lot of time advertising the film version, so there are a lot of people making getting rich from this book. Unfortunately it won't be the readers.

Partial plagiarism of his central thesis?, 02 Nov 2008
Reading these reviews leads me immediately to the realisation that this work may possibly be little better than plagiarism. Siméon-Denis Poisson first examined the statistical modelling of low-probability events in 1838, within a much wider corpus of scientific research in pure and applied natural and social sciences. One immediate conclusion is that the probability of low-odds events occurring (where there is no impedement to frequent possible events) is much higher than normal binomial probability suggests. As this is the heart of Taleb's thesis, he's at best reinvented the wheel.
On the basis of his introduction, examining the work of Umberto Eco, I suspect he falls into a trap of his own pretentiousness, insofar as Professor Eco sometimes espouses hermetic doctrines in his fictional works established long before our days by the Vatican and other similar bodies. His is not the work of a freelance research student, but of an acolyte, affirmed by his other publications of a non-fictional character, displaying the formation of his mentation. It is not therefore appropriate to suggest that there is much of a serendipitous nature about his well-researched, yet doctrinally conformist, theses, and that disables Taleb's first shuffle.
I therefore conclude that as both foundations to his thesis, namely his starting point and the incremental progression thenceforward, appear to be weak, this may not arrive at any logically coherent conclusions at all. Those of a religious disposition might choose to develop that objection further, insofar as the inexplicable Poisson anomaly has sometimes been argued as a scientifically-rigourous case for a non-bounded ontological eidos (or in plain language, "there are more things in heaven and earth, Nicholas, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."), but each to his own: at the very least, he is not doing fresh research by a very long way, as this was very old hat in our market modelling in the 1980s.

Scintillating , 25 Oct 2008
One of the most intelligent pieces of writing I have come across in my reading career.

It opens up some many new ways of viewing life and its events. Delivered with a delightful touch of arrogance, sudden humour, and iconoclastic precision - the book unearths a paradigm which is so overarchingly pervasive yet consciously ignored by people.

The author's tribute to, and coverage of Benoit Mandelbrot, along with the pooh-poohing of the 'normal' model of reality is a salient highlight, and should not be missed by any serious empiricist.

The book is a black swan.

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition..., 21 Oct 2008
This book is a black swan because against all the odds it got published. It has one idea swollen unappealingly to almost 400 pages. It is full of stereotypes, rich in "imaginative" anecdotes and insufferably pompous. If you want to read about chance and probability then try Ian Stewart; for Chance and Necessity read Jacques Monod (1972).

most insightful book I've read in a long time, 18 Oct 2008
Yes, I understand the criticism that Mr Taleb is full of himself - undoubtedly it shows throughout the book.
However, the amount of insights he provides and the many different angles in which he looks at the problem hammers the point through our hard-wired brains, and in my case, provided a fundamental change to the way I think and approach problems.
Definitely, a must read book.

The Emperor has no clothes, 10 Oct 2008
The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable
A highly disappointing text from an erudite and capable author. The book is fallacious, misleading and mischievous. The abuse of simple statistical distributions alone warrants not taking it seriously. It is oversold by the blurb and does not do what it says on the cover. Extremely disappointing.

Literally Saved my life!!, 03 Nov 2008
Before i purchased this book i was suffering from the most horrendous anxiety attacks and what i now know as depression.I was going to see a councilor to help me work through my problems but i found this no help.I was utterly desperate and then my GP recommended this book.By this time i was so bad i could barely leave the house.I was feeling so low taking my life seemed the only option then i discovered this book and it has literally saved my life.I am more positive i think more rationally and have a much more positive outlook on life.Please please if your feeling as desperate as i did just give this book a go what do you have to lose 10 pounds?Let this book help you on a new and more positive journey through your new and better life!

very practical, 22 Mar 2008
I'm no expert on cbt or any type of psychology and I'm always slightly wary. CBT, however, was recommended to me by a psychologist to assist me to help my client group - troubled young people. I love the 'for Dummies' series as they are really easy to read but provide you with quite a broad knowledge for a layman. There is a wealth of sound practical advice in this book for everybody and I can't believe how much I'm learning about myself and my incorrect thinking and its effects. This book requires a lot of concentration (although the style of writing is easy) and effort to think the material through and also to complete the exercises but it really is life-changing. I don't know if it works really well for serious mental health problems but it is certainly working for me and I will most definitely be presenting the practices to the young people I work with.

the best approach to solving life issues, 07 Mar 2008
The cognitive approach to the mind is by far the most empirically sound way to deal with emotional problems. This book helps us to understand the science behind the method. I would only add the book FREE YOUR MIND by Anthony Stultz as a companion. Stultz shows us the ancient roots of CBT in Eastern wisdom and offers and updated system that incorporates the best of Buddhist insight and Western technique.

Stop ruminating , start living , 18 Feb 2008
I know nothing about clinical depression but it is much bandied about. We all feel down from time to time and I am sure there are are those amongst us who hide behind this so as to wallow in their own self pity.

The most common thing you can do and I see it in both myself and other is ruminative thinking. That is allowing things to go round and round in your head. I see it with people who will not make a decision for fear of making the wrong decision. They defend this behaviour because they think by taking no decision they will not make another mistake.

It was the most important lesson from this book. Do not indulge in ruminative thinking.

Fill your life up with things to do so that you do not have time to keep thinking about all your problems .

I also liked the section of spotting errors in your thinking . It is easy to think somehow you are being a realist by accepting current cynical opinions such as turning molehills into mountains, overgeneralising and not thinking efficiently .

For the last few years I have had a set of goals in both my private and business life. It gives me plenty to do and stops me ruminating about my past " failures".

Also I try and practice mindfulness from meditation whereby you live in the moment and experience what you are doing right now.It is a form of concentration and can take you mind off the past and the future. dealing with the present is a full time occupation


A very good informative book on what could be a complicated subject. A must read who want to change their lives.

Excellent, 22 Nov 2007
This book is based on the NLP principles that work so excellently in "The Ultimate Guide To Cosmic Ordering, Empower Your Destiny: Take Control of Your Life" by Andronicos Andronicou. I found it to be full of insight. It is written with clarity and simplicity. I believe it to be a must have if you want to change your life.

loads of great pointers, 18 Feb 2008
How to talk to anyone is written in a straight forward way, giving you tips on how to carry good conversations. It highlights things that, when you think about it, is very very true, especially when you think of people you DONT like speaking with, but dont really see why not.

nice short chapters that lets you pick up a few things every time you pick up the book.

P-E-R-F-E-C-T!!!, 22 Aug 2007
Another new bestseller which I love and recommend - How to be a Super Hot Woman: 339 Tips to Make Every Man Fall in Love with You and Every Woman Envy You
by Mandy Simons

Great books!

The best book of its genre, 05 Sep 2006
I've read various books on developing interpersonal skills, and this is the best of the lot by far. I was really surprised with how comprehensive, detailed, and indeed practical the advice given in this book is, you certainly get your money's worth. Most books on this subject seem a little lightweight, recycled, and you get the feeling you've read it all before in magazine articles etc. The only other book that comes close to this I think is the classic 'How to win friends and influence people', but I get the impression that everybody has read this book now and understands the principles described in it. 'How to talk to anybody' goes beyond this, providing the practical advice that will give you that extra edge you need in the modern world. I've certainly found that it has helped me a great deal.

reader, loughborough, UK, 25 Jun 2006
Y'all this book is awesome! It just gets better by the page. Most of the things written in it are things you already know but didn't necessarily consider important. It doesn't just tell you what they are but how to use it, and it also gives a few examples of the writer's personal experiences to enable you visualise where the idea comes from. If you're a shy person like me who's dying to comfortably talk to someone new you meet or are trying to get the attention of your friends and colleagues...then this is definately the book for you. Personally the rating here isn't enough to convey how good the book is, or maybe i'm just crap at communicating...but you'll never know if you do not read the book!

How to Talk to Anyone is Fantastic, 14 Aug 2005
Hey there,
I absolutely loved this book. I still read it every so often and it has given me confidence in situations where I would be totally at loss.
The best aspect of this book is that it is very clear to understand and practical to accomplish the techniques.
It has also given me a greater understanding of how inadequate the social skills of those around me are... And how superior!!
The people that I once thought confident became social losers.
And those I thought were incapable became my role models.

5 stars goes to this book for teaching me social skills I had never been taught.
You see, as smart as I am, I never finished GCSE's and my life was very anti social before marrying my husband who is a doctor. I tried to go to university, I got in based on my SAT's in America, but never felt very comfortable around people. Obviously, after marriage, I was caught in a whirlwind of doctor cliques... and being the wife of a doctor. I had no idea how to handle the situation.
The techniques in this book gave me the confidence that I too could become a social butterfly even around the most educated of people.
Thank you very much Leil

Terrible. Terrible. Terrible., 03 Nov 2008
This suffers from the same problems as the DVD.

It's derivative. There is absolutely nothing that hasn't been said over and over again.

It's simplistic. Life can be simple, but that doesn't mean you should treat your audience as if they are too.

It's repetitive. Get a variety of different figures in your niche to all say the same things using slightly different words.

It's nasty. Follow the philosophy through to it's logical conclusion and you are left with the concept that those who suffer have brought it upon themselves. There may be a grain of truth for some of the many unfortunates out there, but try telling a starving family in a poverty- and drought-stricken wilderness that really they ought to just change their attitudes and it'll all work out, then see which religion's version of hell you belong in.

It's insidious. They stack what I am sure they see as reasonable arguments one on top of the other, leading from premise to unfounded conclusion at such speed and in such a fashion that they gradually start to get in just through the continual exposure to the same old message.

The whole thing is trite, simple and hackneyed.
Still, it proves what good underground marketing can do. Don't be a sheep. Borrow it first, read it carefully, think on it, then have a good laugh, give it back and forget you ever heard of this tosh.

Promises what it cannot deliver., 31 Oct 2008
Should you wish to read this book with the sole intention of feeling both good about yourself and the world in general, then you will undoubtedly find that it lifts the spirits and enables you to view everything through the proverbial 'rose coloured spectacles'. If this is all you want to obtain from this book then my heartfelt good wishes to you. If, on the otherhand, you are desirous of creating miracles (as the blurb promises) then you will be sadly disappointed. To preclude all doubt to the point where you are able to effectively change the world around you, or your future for that matter, takes something that the majority of us simply cannot command. Jesus could do it - but then he was something a bit special. The rest of us, unfortunately, will have to be satisfied with the rose coloured spectacles. Miracles are not intended for the mundane.

Is the world controlled by a 1% elite?, 21 Oct 2008
The book and the video are the two sides of the same coin and I would advise you to follow the one or the other. I will suggest though that you concentrate on the video because the commentary between the quotations are nothing but the proof that some people need a lot more explanations and a lot of paraphrase to understand the basic meaning. Are we all without limits? And that is going to be my very first remark. From my long experience I know that some people are physically handicapped, or mentally handicapped, or psychologically handicapped, or with many hurdles on their road and around them. You should see the state of some of those children born to deep alcoholics or drug addicts. Or what about children with a severe genetic disparagement? And I refuse to say they are just disabled, or differently-abled. They are handicapped by being materialistically in their very body or mind at a disadvantage that will prevent them from doing what most people around them will be able to do. If the mind is intact, and working on positive thinking is the only way for these people, then they can compensate their physical limitations with their spiritual achievements. But you can't run in the standard Olympics without legs just like a bicycle will not run without wheels. And this time, in most of these situations, one will not be able to excel, full stop and period, and if one can excel in one particular field in which he is not or is less limited, it won't be without the help of other people around them. You cannot think positive if there is no signs along that road. The second remark is positive. Apart from these special cases, everyone, absolutely everyone can excel somewhere and that excellence can only be reached if it is targeted, looked for and built. Positive thinking, education, understanding that the pleasure of such achievements is in the goal when reached and not in the effort you have to accomplish, even if for those who will reach the highest points this very effort is a pleasure, the pleasure of the effort itself. A runner has to train day in and day out and that is never, absolutely never a plain entertaining phase of relaxation and abandon. Physical pleasure requires sweat and heart speed. But if one does not set their minds on the aim they are going to strive towards, they will never reach it. Success is enormously in the mind, in the conscious and subconscious motivation of the candidate. Yet it is absolutely false to say that man has no limits. Humanity, and every member of it, has always been limited historically and no one could think plasma physics or quantum computers under Julius Caesar. Each historical period produces its possible fields of investigation that are limited because in a later historical period those fields of investigation will always be vaster, larger, deeper, more intense. Or then the author is speaking metaphorically of man as the representative of humanity in its cosmic history. But that is not helping any individual who is striving to achieve something in his own life. Icarus did try to fly but wax wings were kind of primitive. Then my third and last remark will be a question: why only ONE percent of humanity controls NINETY-SIX percent of wealth? If this is a fact, and it is, it is the proof that all men are not equal in facts but only in rights, and that is so by our collective decision to say so. But one thing is sure: thinking negatively is never good. Think of McCain and Palin and their negative campaigning. Think of all the anarchists of the world who have never achieved the slightest beginning of their dream which is only a negative picture of the world the way it is. If you criticize the world systematically, then your dream becomes the inverted image of this world, hence a negative picture of reality, and that will never guide or inspire people into desiring such a future. When I don't like something I do not ask for the reverse. I wonder what the situation is, what the possibilities are and if another solution is possible and which one. Then I will think positively along that objective, or rather as objective as possible, line, but to demand black because what I don't like is white, or to require red because what I don't like is blue is primitive negative thinking. That kind of realism and collective striving is absent from this book or video and that is a shame because they forget attraction holds the world and the cosmos up because it is always counterbalanced by repulsion. Otherwise the moon would have fallen onto the earth a long very long time ago, even if this repulsion is itself the product of attractions that are standing abreast and against the attraction of the earth. The apple did not fall as long as the stem was strong enough and the apple light enough for the stem not to break. The author of this book or video seems to have forgotten that the cosmos is a complex system of opposed spheres and when a weak point appears, then a catastrophe develops in that weak point, and the earth is doomed sooner or later in cosmic time to disappear, just like the sun which will one day have burned all itself fuel.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines


Dreadful Twaddle, 16 Oct 2008
After you cut though all the flannel, the secret is revealed. If you think about things they will come to you. No they won't. It takes dedication, persistence and hard work to achieve success, get rich, lose weight or achieve whatever your goal is. This book is delusional and misleading. The elements on positive thinking are fine but they are better expressed in many other self-help books. The 'secret' itself is laughable.

The Secret and The Scam, 11 Oct 2008
A friend of mine bought me this book for my birthday, explaining that it was a best selling spiritual read, so I was looking forward to what it had to say. I can honestly say I was unimpressed from the start. There was this build to this huge life changing 'secret' and it was like waiting for a huge explosion that never actually went off.

This whole Secret is based on wishful, dillusional thnking. It claims that if you want to have money, believe that you will have money and it will come to you. If you want to lose weight, believe that you're losing weight and it will happen. It rarely ever mentions that you have to put work in for these things to happen. In a good way this book does allow people to focus on what they want in life and to focus on the positive, but having a good life, having money and having good relationships requires some work on our part, not just repeating something in our heads and hoping the Universe will deliver. That's just lazy thinking. I gained a lot more from listening to Anthony Robbins CD's then I did from this book. And yes, I'm aware that he's in it for the money too.

This book also spent a lot of time advertising the film version, so there are a lot of people making getting rich from this book. Unfortunately it won't be the readers.

Partial plagiarism of his central thesis?, 02 Nov 2008
Reading these reviews leads me immediately to the realisation that this work may possibly be little better than plagiarism. Siméon-Denis Poisson first examined the statistical modelling of low-probability events in 1838, within a much wider corpus of scientific research in pure and applied natural and social sciences. One immediate conclusion is that the probability of low-odds events occurring (where there is no impedement to frequent possible events) is much higher than normal binomial probability suggests. As this is the heart of Taleb's thesis, he's at best reinvented the wheel.
On the basis of his introduction, examining the work of Umberto Eco, I suspect he falls into a trap of his own pretentiousness, insofar as Professor Eco sometimes espouses hermetic doctrines in his fictional works established long before our days by the Vatican and other similar bodies. His is not the work of a freelance research student, but of an acolyte, affirmed by his other publications of a non-fictional character, displaying the formation of his mentation. It is not therefore appropriate to suggest that there is much of a serendipitous nature about his well-researched, yet doctrinally conformist, theses, and that disables Taleb's first shuffle.
I therefore conclude that as both foundations to his thesis, namely his starting point and the incremental progression thenceforward, appear to be weak, this may not arrive at any logically coherent conclusions at all. Those of a religious disposition might choose to develop that objection further, insofar as the inexplicable Poisson anomaly has sometimes been argued as a scientifically-rigourous case for a non-bounded ontological eidos (or in plain language, "there are more things in heaven and earth, Nicholas, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."), but each to his own: at the very least, he is not doing fresh research by a very long way, as this was very old hat in our market modelling in the 1980s.

Scintillating , 25 Oct 2008
One of the most intelligent pieces of writing I have come across in my reading career.

It opens up some many new ways of viewing life and its events. Delivered with a delightful touch of arrogance, sudden humour, and iconoclastic precision - the book unearths a paradigm which is so overarchingly pervasive yet consciously ignored by people.

The author's tribute to, and coverage of Benoit Mandelbrot, along with the pooh-poohing of the 'normal' model of reality is a salient highlight, and should not be missed by any serious empiricist.

The book is a black swan.

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition..., 21 Oct 2008
This book is a black swan because against all the odds it got published. It has one idea swollen unappealingly to almost 400 pages. It is full of stereotypes, rich in "imaginative" anecdotes and insufferably pompous. If you want to read about chance and probability then try Ian Stewart; for Chance and Necessity read Jacques Monod (1972).

most insightful book I've read in a long time, 18 Oct 2008
Yes, I understand the criticism that Mr Taleb is full of himself - undoubtedly it shows throughout the book.
However, the amount of insights he provides and the many different angles in which he looks at the problem hammers the point through our hard-wired brains, and in my case, provided a fundamental change to the way I think and approach problems.
Definitely, a must read book.

The Emperor has no clothes, 10 Oct 2008
The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable
A highly disappointing text from an erudite and capable author. The book is fallacious, misleading and mischievous. The abuse of simple statistical distributions alone warrants not taking it seriously. It is oversold by the blurb and does not do what it says on the cover. Extremely disappointing.

Literally Saved my life!!, 03 Nov 2008
Before i purchased this book i was suffering from the most horrendous anxiety attacks and what i now know as depression.I was going to see a councilor to help me work through my problems but i found this no help.I was utterly desperate and then my GP recommended this book.By this time i was so bad i could barely leave the house.I was feeling so low taking my life seemed the only option then i discovered this book and it has literally saved my life.I am more positive i think more rationally and have a much more positive outlook on life.Please please if your feeling as desperate as i did just give this book a go what do you have to lose 10 pounds?Let this book help you on a new and more positive journey through your new and better life!

very practical, 22 Mar 2008
I'm no expert on cbt or any type of psychology and I'm always slightly wary. CBT, however, was recommended to me by a psychologist to assist me to help my client group - troubled young people. I love the 'for Dummies' series as they are really easy to read but provide you with quite a broad knowledge for a layman. There is a wealth of sound practical advice in this book for everybody and I can't believe how much I'm learning about myself and my incorrect thinking and its effects. This book requires a lot of concentration (although the style of writing is easy) and effort to think the material through and also to complete the exercises but it really is life-changing. I don't know if it works really well for serious mental health problems but it is certainly working for me and I will most definitely be presenting the practices to the young people I work with.

the best approach to solving life issues, 07 Mar 2008
The cognitive approach to the mind is by far the most empirically sound way to deal with emotional problems. This book helps us to understand the science behind the method. I would only add the book FREE YOUR MIND by Anthony Stultz as a companion. Stultz shows us the ancient roots of CBT in Eastern wisdom and offers and updated system that incorporates the best of Buddhist insight and Western technique.

Stop ruminating , start living , 18 Feb 2008
I know nothing about clinical depression but it is much bandied about. We all feel down from time to time and I am sure there are are those amongst us who hide behind this so as to wallow in their own self pity.

The most common thing you can do and I see it in both myself and other is ruminative thinking. That is allowing things to go round and round in your head. I see it with people who will not make a decision for fear of making the wrong decision. They defend this behaviour because they think by taking no decision they will not make another mistake.

It was the most important lesson from this book. Do not indulge in ruminative thinking.

Fill your life up with things to do so that you do not have time to keep thinking about all your problems .

I also liked the section of spotting errors in your thinking . It is easy to think somehow you are being a realist by accepting current cynical opinions such as turning molehills into mountains, overgeneralising and not thinking efficiently .

For the last few years I have had a set of goals in both my private and business life. It gives me plenty to do and stops me ruminating about my past " failures".

Also I try and practice mindfulness from meditation whereby you live in the moment and experience what you are doing right now.It is a form of concentration and can take you mind off the past and the future. dealing with the present is a full time occupation


A very good informative book on what could be a complicated subject. A must read who want to change their lives.

Excellent, 22 Nov 2007
This book is based on the NLP principles that work so excellently in "The Ultimate Guide To Cosmic Ordering, Empower Your Destiny: Take Control of Your Life" by Andronicos Andronicou. I found it to be full of insight. It is written with clarity and simplicity. I believe it to be a must have if you want to change your life.

loads of great pointers, 18 Feb 2008
How to talk to anyone is written in a straight forward way, giving you tips on how to carry good conversations. It highlights things that, when you think about it, is very very true, especially when you think of people you DONT like speaking with, but dont really see why not.

nice short chapters that lets you pick up a few things every time you pick up the book.

P-E-R-F-E-C-T!!!, 22 Aug 2007
Another new bestseller which I love and recommend - How to be a Super Hot Woman: 339 Tips to Make Every Man Fall in Love with You and Every Woman Envy You
by Mandy Simons

Great books!

The best book of its genre, 05 Sep 2006
I've read various books on developing interpersonal skills, and this is the best of the lot by far. I was really surprised with how comprehensive, detailed, and indeed practical the advice given in this book is, you certainly get your money's worth. Most books on this subject seem a little lightweight, recycled, and you get the feeling you've read it all before in magazine articles etc. The only other book that comes close to this I think is the classic 'How to win friends and influence people', but I get the impression that everybody has read this book now and understands the principles described in it. 'How to talk to anybody' goes beyond this, providing the practical advice that will give you that extra edge you need in the modern world. I've certainly found that it has helped me a great deal.

reader, loughborough, UK, 25 Jun 2006
Y'all this book is awesome! It just gets better by the page. Most of the things written in it are things you already know but didn't necessarily consider important. It doesn't just tell you what they are but how to use it, and it also gives a few examples of the writer's personal experiences to enable you visualise where the idea comes from. If you're a shy person like me who's dying to comfortably talk to someone new you meet or are trying to get the attention of your friends and colleagues...then this is definately the book for you. Personally the rating here isn't enough to convey how good the book is, or maybe i'm just crap at communicating...but you'll never know if you do not read the book!

How to Talk to Anyone is Fantastic, 14 Aug 2005
Hey there,
I absolutely loved this book. I still read it every so often and it has given me confidence in situations where I would be totally at loss.
The best aspect of this book is that it is very clear to understand and practical to accomplish the techniques.
It has also given me a greater understanding of how inadequate the social skills of those around me are... And how superior!!
The people that I once thought confident became social losers.
And those I thought were incapable became my role models.

5 stars goes to this book for teaching me social skills I had never been taught.
You see, as smart as I am, I never finished GCSE's and my life was very anti social before marrying my husband who is a doctor. I tried to go to university, I got in based on my SAT's in America, but never felt very comfortable around people. Obviously, after marriage, I was caught in a whirlwind of doctor cliques... and being the wife of a doctor. I had no idea how to handle the situation.
The techniques in this book gave me the confidence that I too could become a social butterfly even around the most educated of people.
Thank you very much Leil

A great guy for anyone, not just the perplexed, 20 Oct 2008
This is a great book for anyone, not just anyone who's either perplexed by people skills or a professional who regularly handles people.

I first read it when I was about seventeen or eighteen and it did seem just as hokey as the title might suggests, it is a presentation of a series of truisms with lots of anecdotal stories told well.

The chapters break down into handling people (for instance dont critize, condemn or complain), how to become likeable (smiling, listening skills, recalling people's names, developing a sincere interest in others and making them feel important), how to win people to your way of thinking (lots of great ways of phrasing, paraphrasing and rephrasing dialogue to get a win-win situation) and finally being a leader, how to change people without giving offense or arousing resentment.

Now the skills outlined in the book might come as a surprise or you might realise that you've been using them all along but never been that conscious or deliberate about it before.

Whether you intend to put it all into practice or not its still a great read, Carnegie answers his critics in a way in the course of the book by describing how salesmen would attend his lectures looking for a sort of machavellian insight and he told them it wasnt possible to rival sincere interest in others, neat tricks wouldnt cut it with people.

So, I opened by saying its a great book for the general reader, and it is, however I'd also say its a great book for professionals, I've read lots of other books on communication and interpersonal skills, including psychological, therapist and motivational texts and this remains among the best. Although I doubt you'll find it on any university reading list.

Who Else Wants to Change Their Life?, 20 Sep 2008
I'll be honest. I avoided this book for years. Then one day a good friend of mine (who is a Cambridge Rocket Scientist turned Internet Consulting Millionaire) said "hey did you ever read How to Win Friends and Influence People, that book's just amazing, it's hard to think of one that's better!" now put in the context that I've seen this guy pay $5000 for a book and MP3 course I naturally stopped and said "So you're telling me that this $20 or something book is worth more than the $5000 dollar courses? c'mon? no way?!?". He says: "Pretty much. Yes." As you can imagine I was then on tender hooks waiting for this to arrive I dove right in and....three months later (I do have a day job to hold down and kids to amuse ;-) ) Wow!...no...WOW! this is THE book. I've read a lot of self help books: this is the one that really changed my life. And not in weird unmeasurable ways, the advice in this book has been of practical help in almost all aspect of my life, personal, professional and social. Forget the myths around this book, buy it, read it and reap the rewards.

Essential Reading, 20 Sep 2008
For years, I'd tended to avoid this book, partly because of its cheesy title. However, I eventually decided to give it a try and I'm glad I did. Carnegie's great skill is in identifying how we can grow ourselves by interacting in a correct, responsible, ethical and empathetic way with other human beings.

Strange thing is, when you read much of his advice, you realise you knew it anyway, but that you'd somehow forgotten to act in that way. Simply try to act like some of his suggestions for a few days and I guarantee you will feel small but perceptible positive differences, and with the rise of the web and email, we are probably more in need of this advice than ever before. Give this book a try and I believe you won't be disappointed.

The Greatest Self-Help Book, 05 Sep 2008
This is the daddy of all self-help books. Many others are based on its teachings but few can match it for the clarity of its wonderful advice. It will build your self-confidence and help you to understand, relate to and influence other people. Highly recommended.

Mixed Feelings, 31 Jul 2008
This is a good book, no doubt about it. It was written a long time ago, but much of the advice contained within its pages is timeless and pertinent no matter what era we live in.

There is some advice in this book, though, that is a little dated. I feel just some of the tips for dealing with people would not work out the same way in today's world with current attitudes.

How To Win Friends And Influence People is definitely worth reading, but I think the reader really needs to analyze all the advice and adjust and tweak things a little to be useful in today's society.

Overall an excellent book.

How To Keep Your Man: And Keep Him For Good

Real Life Dramas - Volume One: 1

Darren G. Burton

According to Steven R. Covey, to live with security and wisdom, and to have the power to take advantages of the opportunities that change creates, we need fairness, integrity, honesty and human dignity. Quite a tall order when you consider that most of us live our lives in a permanent state of flux, questioning our ideals and values and fighting a daily battle with the lack of self-confidence that stops us from taking risks of any kind. But, in The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Covey manages to make it sound as if changing the way we look at ourselves and the world around us so that we can become more successful both personally and professionally an absolute doddle. He defines the "habits" as "the intersection of knowledge, skill and desire" and states that the "Seven Habits" of the title are not mutually exclusive, but rather when developed together help to form a well-rounded, sensitive, confident and effective human being.

As with many self-help books, much of what you read here is based on basic common sense and can at times be irritatingly obvious. However, what Covey manages to do so successfully is to break down the barriers which prevent all of us from taking a long hard look at ourselves, and then gradually introduces new rules which allow us to move first from dependence to independence and then towards the ultimate goal of interdependence. But of course, the only real way to test the value of The Habits--be proactive, begin with the end in mind, put first things first, think "win/win", seek first to understand and then to be understood, synergise, sharpen the saw-- is to work on them. This book is as good as any place to start on the road to self-awareness and self-improvement in the workplace and in the home without becoming too irritatingly smug and self-satisfied. --Susan Harrison

Terrible. Terrible. Terrible., 03 Nov 2008
This suffers from the same problems as the DVD.

It's derivative. There is absolutely nothing that hasn't been said over and over again.

It's simplistic. Life can be simple, but that doesn't mean you should treat your audience as if they are too.

It's repetitive. Get a variety of different figures in your niche to all say the same things using slightly different words.

It's nasty. Follow the philosophy through to it's logical conclusion and you are left with the concept that those who suffer have brought it upon themselves. There may be a grain of truth for some of the many unfortunates out there, but try telling a starving family in a poverty- and drought-stricken wilderness that really they ought to just change their attitudes and it'll all work out, then see which religion's version of hell you belong in.

It's insidious. They stack what I am sure they see as reasonable arguments one on top of the other, leading from premise to unfounded conclusion at such speed and in such a fashion that they gradually start to get in just through the continual exposure to the same old message.

The whole thing is trite, simple and hackneyed.
Still, it proves what good underground marketing can do. Don't be a sheep. Borrow it first, read it carefully, think on it, then have a good laugh, give it back and forget you ever heard of this tosh.

Promises what it cannot deliver., 31 Oct 2008
Should you wish to read this book with the sole intention of feeling both good about yourself and the world in general, then you will undoubtedly find that it lifts the spirits and enables you to view everything through the proverbial 'rose coloured spectacles'. If this is all you want to obtain from this book then my heartfelt good wishes to you. If, on the otherhand, you are desirous of creating miracles (as the blurb promises) then you will be sadly disappointed. To preclude all doubt to the point where you are able to effectively change the world around you, or your future for that matter, takes something that the majority of us simply cannot command. Jesus could do it - but then he was something a bit special. The rest of us, unfortunately, will have to be satisfied with the rose coloured spectacles. Miracles are not intended for the mundane.

Is the world controlled by a 1% elite?, 21 Oct 2008
The book and the video are the two sides of the same coin and I would advise you to follow the one or the other. I will suggest though that you concentrate on the video because the commentary between the quotations are nothing but the proof that some people need a lot more explanations and a lot of paraphrase to understand the basic meaning. Are we all without limits? And that is going to be my very first remark. From my long experience I know that some people are physically handicapped, or mentally handicapped, or psychologically handicapped, or with many hurdles on their road and around them. You should see the state of some of those children born to deep alcoholics or drug addicts. Or what about children with a severe genetic disparagement? And I refuse to say they are just disabled, or differently-abled. They are handicapped by being materialistically in their very body or mind at a disadvantage that will prevent them from doing what most people around them will be able to do. If the mind is intact, and working on positive thinking is the only way for these people, then they can compensate their physical limitations with their spiritual achievements. But you can't run in the standard Olympics without legs just like a bicycle will not run without wheels. And this time, in most of these situations, one will not be able to excel, full stop and period, and if one can excel in one particular field in which he is not or is less limited, it won't be without the help of other people around them. You cannot think positive if there is no signs along that road. The second remark is positive. Apart from these special cases, everyone, absolutely everyone can excel somewhere and that excellence can only be reached if it is targeted, looked for and built. Positive thinking, education, understanding that the pleasure of such achievements is in the goal when reached and not in the effort you have to accomplish, even if for those who will reach the highest points this very effort is a pleasure, the pleasure of the effort itself. A runner has to train day in and day out and that is never, absolutely never a plain entertaining phase of relaxation and abandon. Physical pleasure requires sweat and heart speed. But if one does not set their minds on the aim they are going to strive towards, they will never reach it. Success is enormously in the mind, in the conscious and subconscious motivation of the candidate. Yet it is absolutely false to say that man has no limits. Humanity, and every member of it, has always been limited historically and no one could think plasma physics or quantum computers under Julius Caesar. Each historical period produces its possible fields of investigation that are limited because in a later historical period those fields of investigation will always be vaster, larger, deeper, more intense. Or then the author is speaking metaphorically of man as the representative of humanity in its cosmic history. But that is not helping any individual who is striving to achieve something in his own life. Icarus did try to fly but wax wings were kind of primitive. Then my third and last remark will be a question: why only ONE percent of humanity controls NINETY-SIX percent of wealth? If this is a fact, and it is, it is the proof that all men are not equal in facts but only in rights, and that is so by our collective decision to say so. But one thing is sure: thinking negatively is never good. Think of McCain and Palin and their negative campaigning. Think of all the anarchists of the world who have never achieved the slightest beginning of their dream which is only a negative picture of the world the way it is. If you criticize the world systematically, then your dream becomes the inverted image of this world, hence a negative picture of reality, and that will never guide or inspire people into desiring such a future. When I don't like something I do not ask for the reverse. I wonder what the situation is, what the possibilities are and if another solution is possible and which one. Then I will think positively along that objective, or rather as objective as possible, line, but to demand black because what I don't like is white, or to require red because what I don't like is blue is primitive negative thinking. That kind of realism and collective striving is absent from this book or video and that is a shame because they forget attraction holds the world and the cosmos up because it is always counterbalanced by repulsion. Otherwise the moon would have fallen onto the earth a long very long time ago, even if this repulsion is itself the product of attractions that are standing abreast and agai