Everything started on an evening in autumn 2004. At the invitation of the publisher hubert burda traveled to munich to take part in what was called an "informal exchange with intellectuals". I had never before perceived myself as an »intellectual« (i studied business administration and am an entrepreneur - the opposite of an intellectual), but i had published two novels, and that was obviously enough.

At the table sat nassim nicholas taleb, then an obscure wall street trader with a penchant for philosophy. I was introduced to him as a knower of the english and scottish enlightenment - specifically david hume. I was obviously mistaken. I didn't say anything, smiled a little uncertainly and let the pause that arose as a result of my enormous knowledge of philosophy.

Immediately taleb wakes a vacant chair towards him and, patting the seat, bids me sit down on it. Fortunately, after a few sentences the conversation turned from hume to wall street, where at least i was able to keep up. We were amused by the systematic mistakes that ceos power without excluding ourselves. We reason on the fact that unlikely events appear to be more likely in retrospect. We laughed at the fact that investors can hardly part with their stocks at prices below cost price.

As a result, there are manuscript pages that i commented on, some of which were criticized, and which became the world's bestseller, the black swan. The book catapulted taleb into the league of intellectuals weltstars. With growing intellectual hunger, i see the "heuristics and biases" literature. At the same time, the exchange with a large number of people strengthened itself, which could be called the american east coast intelligentsia. Years later i realized that in addition to my job as a script writer and entrepreneur, i had completed a veritable degree in social and cognitive psychology.

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