Nassim Nicholas Taleb is an essayist principally concerned with the problems of uncertainty and knowledge. Taleb?s interests lie at the intersection of philosophy, mathematics, finance, literature, and cognitive science but he has stayed extremely close to the ground thanks to an uninterrupted two-decade career as a mathematical trader. Specializing in the risks of unpredicted rare events (?black swans?), he held senior trading positions in New York and London before founding Empirica LLC, a trading firm and risk research laboratory. Taleb is a fellow at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences of New York University where he has been teaching a class on the failure of models since 1999. His degrees include an MBA from the Wharton School and a Ph.D. from the University of Paris Dauphine. The author?s ideas on skeptical empiricism have been covered by hundreds of articles around the world. Since childhood, Taleb has been obsessed with the defects of his own thinking. In addition to his scientific and literary interests, Taleb enjoys cafe lounging and museum hopping.