Paper Details: Nassim Nicholas Taleb (the author) in the book Fooled by Randomness, means by the "black swan principle," and use that principle to critique the usefulness of the capital asset pricing model (CAPM.)

Randomness, or luck, has been an obsession of msen, great and humble alike, since the beginnings of history. In past times, when the Gods made sport of mankind. In present times, still, the role of chance in our lives has been under-appreciated. Whether genetic or cultural, modern man seeks to find patterns and reasons for actions. Nobody wants their success to be attributed to dumb luck -- and in cases of tragedy, there is an urgent need to find the cause and assign responsibility.

Concepts like "survivorship bias," "black swan events," "fat-tailed distributions" are explained along with clever stock market scams and why the chances of 2 people at a celebration having the similar birthday isn't as unlikely as you might imagine. He turns the time-honored lament, "if we're so smart, why aren't we rich?" on its head: "If you're so rich, why aren't you smart?" he asks. More importantly, are successful people good, or just lucky? And most importantly, how can you know?