This morning, I read two wonderful essays on the web – one by Warren Buffet and one by Paul Graham.
- Warren Buffett: Buy American. I Am.
- Paul Graham: Why to Start a Startup in a Bad Economy
Both of these made me immediately think of Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s brilliant new book – The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable- which has been making the rounds the past few months. If you haven’t yet read it, you should stop what you are doing, buy it immediately, and read it. If you haven’t read Taleb’s Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets, you should read it first as it sets the stage for The Black Swan.
In The Black Swan, Taleb introduces the wonderful place called Extremistan and the much less interesting but much more often occupied place called Mediocristan. Buffett and Graham give us more clues as to why Extremistan is a much more satisfying place to hang out.