NASSIM NICHOLAS TALEB is a former derivatives trader turned essayist and scholar specializing in  problems of probability and uncertainty. His work focuses on mathematical and philosophical problems with probability, particularly model error. His work on risk covers issues of political stability, metaprobability, statistical mechanics, psychological biases, and risk-based systems of ethics.

Taleb is currently Distinguished Professor of Risk Engineering at New York University’s Polytechnic Institute. Before starting a career as an essayist and scholar in 2006, Taleb held senior trading positions in derivatives with trading houses in New York and London and managed his own portfolio hedging  boutique. 

He is the author of Incerto, a Philosophical Essay on Uncertainty  (3 volumes: Antifragile, The Black Swan, and Fooled by Randomness, plus a companion book of aphorisms:The Bed of Procrustes). His technical works include Dynamic Hedging and Convexity, Heuristics and Metaprobability (electronic).

He considers himself an Edge Activist—a member of the "literary and empirical community of scientists-philosophers".