Our world is becoming ever more complex. Among the geopolitical and macroeconomic issues currently facing mankind, with serious ramifications for our future, are digitalization and technology, climate change, and globalization. Political upheaval, wars, natural disasters, economic recessions, and pandemics, have all had massive negative impacts on our society. In this new world, various governmental and organizational decisionmakers – including managers, international agencies, NGOs, political leaders, economists, science & technology innovators, and medical professionals – must all learn to anticipate and deal with these emergent risks, the integration of which, along with the management of ‘black swan’ events, has assumed paramount importance. This is the huge challenge now facing us. This book, aimed at both academics and practitioners, shows how a framework for resilience can be created to help modern organizations to not only survive but to thrive. The author considers some of the organizations and bodies that can be said to be highly resilient and examines how ‘Resilience Thinking’ affects different disciplines and environments. He addresses the question of how resilience works and how it is applied in practice. The relationship between resilience and other knowledge areas such as complexity theory, strategy, and risk management – from both top-down and bottom-up perspectives – is examined. Situations are identified where there is a particular need for resilience, and an overview of the best ways of implementing a resilience process is offered.

The Impact of the Highly Improbable. Just because you haven’t seen something doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist, right? Well, Nassim Nicholas Taleb uses this exact logic to explain the Black Swans that happen in our society. A Black Swan is an improbable or highly unlikely event that has three principal characteristics. The first two are that it is unpredictable and it carries a massive impact. The third is the ability to construct an explanation after the fact to make it appear less random, and more predictable. Think of events like 9/11 or the invention of Google. These Black Swans, while unpredictable and impactful, could easily be explained in the moments following the event. Black Swans like these underlie almost everything about the world. But why can’t we acknowledge them until after they occur? Well, according to Taleb, humans are simply hardwired to focus on the details rather than see the big picture. We concentrate only on what we know and understand; therefore, we are unable to conceptualize the impossible. As you read, you’ll learn that we can learn a thing or two from turkeys, you'll see how a casino's greatest threat isn't high-rolling gamblers, and how focusing on what we don't know is critical for making informed decisions. Do you want more free book summaries like this? Download our app for free at https://www.QuickRead.com/App and get access to hundreds of free book and audiobook summaries. DISCLAIMER: This book summary is meant as a preview and not a replacement for the original work. If you like this summary please consider purchasing the original book to get the full experience as the original author intended it to be. If you are the original author of any book on QuickRead and want us to remove it, please contact us at hello@quickread.com.

Nina is an exceptionally talented ballerina in a New York City ballet company. When artistic director Thomas Leroy decides to replace prima ballerina Beth Macintyre for the opening production of their new season, Swan Lake, Nina is his first choice. But she has competition: new dancer Lily, who impresses Leroy as well. Swan Lake requires a dancer who can play both the White Swan with innocence and grace, and the Black Swan, who represents guile and sensuality. Nina fits the White Swan role perfectly but Lily is the personification of the Black Swan. As the two young dancers expand their rivalry into a twisted friendship, Nina begins to get more in touch with her dark side - a recklessness that threatens to destroy her. | Originally produced as an American motion picture in 2010. | Performed by: Natalie Portman, Vincent Cassel, Mila Kunis, Barbara Hershey, Winona Ryder. Directed by Darren Aronofsky ; screenplay by Mark Heyman, Andres Heinz and John McLaughlin ; story by Andres Heinz ; produced by Mike Medavoy, Arnold W. Messer, Brian Oliver, Scott Franklin ; director of photography, Matthew Libatique ; production designer, Therese DePrez ; editor, Andrew Weisblum ; costume designer, Amy Westcott ; original score, Clint Mansell ; visual effects supervisor, Dan Schrecker ; ballet choreography, Benjamin Millepied ; ballet costumes designed by Kate and Laura Mulleavy ; music for 'Swan Lake' composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. | In English, English audio descriptive for the visually impaired, Castilian Spanish, Italian; with optional subtitles in English for the hearing impaired, Castilian Spanish, Danish, Finnish, Italian, Norwegian, Swedish. | R16 - Restricted to persons 16 years and over. Note: Violence, sex scenes and content that may disturb. | Region 4, PAL.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb is a Lebanese born American literateur, scholar, essayist, trade-cum-risk analyst, statistician and so on. His multi-faceted talent and the ability to wander freely amongst diverse faculty of subjects have made him a force to reckon with in the gamut of global intellectual society. Most of Taleb's works are related to the dilemma of volatility, probability and uncertainty. Nicholas Taleb was born in Amioun (Lebanon) in the year 1960. He is an author of international fame and has served as an academician in several universities and is currently positioned as a distinguished professor of Risk Engineering at the New York University (Tandon School of Engineering). He has authored so many books to devour. The Black Swan, Antifragile, Skin in the Game, Fooled by Randomness, The Bed of Procrustes, Dynamic Hedging to name a few (combinedly called Incerto) are termed as Taleb’s most outstanding creations in the contemporary literary world. Nassim Nicholas Taleb has had devoted a good 21 years as a risk-taker (quantitative trader) before becoming a wanderer and researcher in spheres of mathematics, philosophy and largely potential problems with chance and probability. Over and above being impressed as a trader, Taleb has also written over 50 academic articles in multiple subjects as a sequel to Incerto. The topics covered are from physics, philosophy, statistics, economics, ethics, quantitative finance and international affairs. The central idea in all these creations has centered on the notion of risk and probability with an undercurrent of randomness.

Can a wolf and a swan be together? *** Darilus Gratagan is the Elven emperor of the Aluthia Empire. His rise to power brought to him a dark curse; a demonic wolf is infesting in his body. For a hundred and twelve years, he has managed to suppress the curse. But the demon is getting stronger, to the point that Darilus finds himself turning into a monster almost every night. He begins to desire blood and his people are in danger of himself. Until he finds the evil witch from Tollyria in his royal garden. “I can tame a demon dog,” she says. *** Sania has died. At least she thought so. But then she opens her eyes in Aluthia’s royal garden and when she looks at the reflection of the pond… she sees herself as a black swan. However, when night comes, she shifts back into her original form; the White Witch of Tollyria. For some reason, she cannot leave the royal garden. Then she meets the Emperor of Aluthia… in the form of a demonic wolf. “Make a deal with me,” he says. This story will be applied to PTR on Nov 5th 2021

ONCE UPON A TIME, there was a family whose very name connoted wealth. The Vanderbilts had a vast empire built on freight through steamboats and railroads. Over a few generations, the wealth-worth billions in today's money-had been frittered away and the business itself faded as new options came up in the freight business. Their story remains an enduring example of what happens when business leaders fail to embrace the future and transform. BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION is a live subject, one that authors R. Gopalakrishnan and Hrishi Bhattacharyya have between them a hundred-plus years of leading in their companies. Their learnings, supported by numerous examples, make for riveting reading. One chief lesson why such transformations succeed or fail has to do with combining the art and science of the change – the heart and the mind – and getting the balance of the two right. In life as in business, to effect a transformation, one needs a compelling narrative, one that inspires the organisation. Important too is to see transformation as a continuous endeavour and made a part of work culture rather than to consider it an exercise undertaken only in a crisis. Embrace the Future is a major book by two business leaders that will appeal to anyone who has faced change-in today's fluid business environment, most of us. As Gopalakrishnan and Bhattacharyya emphasise, companies that fail to adapt are destined to perish. One needs to learn from the past, manage the present and prepare for the future. We must imagine the future we desire and then fold it into the present.

The most influential book of the past seventy-five years: a groundbreaking exploration of everything we know about what we don’t know, now with a new section called “On Robustness and Fragility.” A black swan is a highly improbable event with three principal characteristics: It is unpredictable; it carries a massive impact; and, after the fact, we concoct an explanation that makes it appear less random, and more predictable, than it was. The astonishing success of Google was a black swan; so was 9/11. For Nassim Nicholas Taleb, black swans underlie almost everything about our world, from the rise of religions to events in our own personal lives. Why do we not acknowledge the phenomenon of black swans until after they occur? Part of the answer, according to Taleb, is that humans are hardwired to learn specifics when they should be focused on generalities. We concentrate on things we already know and time and time again fail to take into consideration what we don’t know. We are, therefore, unable to truly estimate opportunities, too vulnerable to the impulse to simplify, narrate, and categorize, and not open enough to rewarding those who can imagine the “impossible.” For years, Taleb has studied how we fool ourselves into thinking we know more than we actually do. We restrict our thinking to the irrelevant and inconsequential, while large events continue to surprise us and shape our world. In this revelatory book, Taleb will change the way you look at the world, and this second edition features a new philosophical and empirical essay, “On Robustness and Fragility,” which offers tools to navigate and exploit a Black Swan world. Taleb is a vastly entertaining writer, with wit, irreverence, and unusual stories to tell. He has a polymathic command of subjects ranging from cognitive science to business to probability theory. Elegant, startling, and universal in its applications, The Black Swan is a landmark book—itself a black swan.

An incisive framework for companies seeking to increase their resilience In The Black Swan Problem: Risk Management Strategies for a World of Wild Uncertainty, renowned risk and finance expert Håkan Jankensgård delivers an extraordinary and startling discussion of how firms should navigate a world of uncertainty and unexpected events. It examines three fundamental, high-level strategies for creating resilience in the face of “black swan” risks, highly unlikely but devastating events: insurance, buffering, and flexibility: The author also presents: Detailed case studies, stories, and examples of major firms that failed to anticipate Black Swan Problems and, as a result, were either wiped out or experienced a major strategy disruption Extending the usual academic focus on individual biases to analyze Swans from an organizational perspective and prime organizations to proactive rather than reactive action Practical applications and tactics to mitigate Black Swan risks and protect corporate strategies against catastrophic losses and the collateral damage that they cause Strategies and tools for turning Black Swan events into opportunities, reflecting the fact that resilience can be used for strategic advantage An expert blueprint for companies seeking to anticipate, mitigate, and process tail risks, The Black Swan Problem is a must-read for students and practitioners of risk management, executives, founders, managers, and other business leaders.

In the enchanting kingdom of Swanlake, where white swans dance upon shimmering waters, a tale of beauty, unity and the power of an unexpected hero unfolds. "The Black Swan of Swanlake" by Dean Foley is a heartwarming story about Nora, a black swan whose unique presence challenges the long-standing beliefs of her community. As Swanlake faces a dire threat that could spell its end, an ancient legend suggests that only the song of a black swan can save the kingdom. And with the fate of Swanlake resting on her wings, Nora embarks on a journey of self-discovery, courage and the search for her voice. Along the way, she encounters wise allies and confronts the deep-seated prejudices that have divided her world. This beautifully crafted children's picture book is a reminder that diversity is a strength, that courage can be found in the most unlikely places and that everyone has a unique song capable of bringing about change. Through Nora's (short) journey, children are invited to embrace their own differences and discover the unity that lies in diversity. "The Black Swan of Swanlake" is more than a story; it's a celebration of the beauty in being oneself and the magical changes that can occur when we allow every voice to be heard. Join Nora as she transforms not only her destiny but the hearts of all in Swanlake, teaching us that true harmony comes from understanding and acceptance.