I haven't read the 'Black Swan' yet, and to be honest I might never do - although I liked 'Fooled by Randomness'. As far as I can tell it seems to be the same idea, but with new examples - and I fear more theories...

I liked your review, HedgeFundGuy, and I have to admit that a similar review could also have been written on 'Fooled by Randomness'. However, I would like to make a point about how books like this should be read. (I noted a similar phenomenon when reading e.g. Soro's 'Alchemy of Finance'.)

One should take into consideration the fact that Taleb is not really a trained academic, which, I believe, results in the problems you mention. To get something out of the book, I don't think it should be read as an attempt to creat new theory - although Taleb thinks that's what he is doing. Instead I think it should be read more like a work of fiction. But as such it can be instructive, at least 'Fooled by Randomness' was to me.

Thus, the worth of 'Fooled by Randomness' was in the intuition - in the true meaning of the word - not in the science. As far as I'm concerned you could certainly bash him even harder - so he stops doing science and does more fiction, which he is (or was) good at.