Nassim Nicholas Taleb is a trader in New York and London financial markets, but also has a Ph.D. and does some teaching at the university level. His purpose in writing Fooled by Randomness appears to be to expose and explain what he considers a major flaw in financial reasoning and, by implication, suggest ways to improve financial decision-making. His approach blends personal observations and discussion of empirical research. A note on the page with the copyright and publication data states that the book is ''a work of nonfiction, but certain names of nonpublic figures have been changed, and some of the private individuals described are fictionalized or composite portraits.'' Fooled by Randomness focuses on scenarios in which random processes play a large (or a complete) role, but which are interpreted as substantive phenomena. It also, however, discusses a number of other areas in which people exhibit poor statistical reasoning, more generally. Prominent figures in academia and finance, from Kahneman and Tversky to George Soros, are discussed extensively. The book's focus on business and finance dovetails nicely with interest over the years in the hidden role of randomness in other domains, such as sports (two examples being ''hot hand'' research, as inaugurated by Gilovich, Vallone, and Tversky in 1985, and the 2001 book Curve Ball by Jim Albert and Jay Bennett, the subheading of which is ''Baseball, Statistics, and the Role of Chance in the Game''; the former is discussed briefly by Taleb). Thus, whether inside or outside of academia, anyone who spends time analyzing success and failure in whatever domain would find Fooled by Randomness to be applicable. The book's overarching theme is that observers do not take into account data that are not readily visible, as illustrated in the following examples: