很多人都讀過《黑天鵝》這本書，亦知道所謂的「黑天鵝」指什麼；但有幾多人留意到 Taleb 這本享負盛名之作，是向 Benoît Mandelbrot 致意的呢？書首乾乾淨淨的一頁白，印著：
To Benoît Mandelbrot,
a Greek among Romans
諗過理科的都不會對這個名字感到陌生吧！ Benoît Mandelbrot ，世人尊稱他為分形幾何學之父， 對於其生平事跡，維基百科講得十分詳盡，在此不贅。唯一想指出的，是他發現金融市場中的價格變化並不依循常態分佈﹝ normal distribution ﹞，而是遵從 Lévy stable distributions ，價格的上落亦非隨機﹝ random ﹞，而是 fractional Brownian motion in multi-fractal time 。
可是他的理論備受冷落，眼見金融學日益興盛，但內容盡是建基於不盡不實的假設之上，架牀疊屋地用數學推導出來的「垃圾」，而推出這堆「垃圾」的學者居然一個又一個地獲頒諾貝爾經濟學獎，他的心情可想而知。
在 2007 年《黑天鵝》初版推出之際，金融海嘯尚未發生， Taleb 在書中已指出世人普遍以一堆猶如「垃圾」的金融理論來衡量風險，遲早出事。這本書風靡全球，除因為其涉及面既廣且深﹝不單限於經濟與金融，而及至哲學﹞，且有先見之明之外，作者對象牙塔學者不留情面的批評，言詞尖酸之程度，可謂一絕：
'The Nobel Committee could have tested the Sharpe and Markowitz models - they work like quack remedies sold on the Internet - but nobody in Stockholm seems to have thought of it. Nor did the committee come to us practitioners to ask us our opinions; instead it relied on an academic vetting process that, in some disciplines, can be corrupt all the way to the marrow. After that award I made a prediction: "In a world in which these two get the Nobel, anything can happen. Anyone can become president."'
── 節錄自《黑天鵝》第 17 章
《黑天鵝》這本書的意義在於警世，亦替 Benoît Mandelbrot 抱了個不平：
'In sum, four decades ago, Mandelbrot gave pearls to economists and résumé-building philistines, which they rejected because the ideas were too good for them. It was, as the saying goes, margaritas ante porcos, pearls before swine.'
── 節錄自《黑天鵝》第 16 章
可知古時偉大的數學家﹝尤指幾何學家﹞皆出於希臘；而羅馬人基本上是輕蔑數學的，縱然算術及概率理論﹝用於賭博？﹞是源自羅馬。Taleb 稱 Benoît Mandelbrot 為 'a Greek among Romans' 實在可圈可點。
| 'Clouds are not spheres, mountains are not cones, coastlines are not circles, and bark is not smooth, nor does lightning travel in a straight line.' ── Benoît Mandelbrot (1924-2010) |
參考資料：
。The BLACK SWAN: The Impact of the highly improbable, Nassim Nicholas Taleb
。The (Mis)behavior of markets: A fractal view of risk, ruin & reward, Benoît Mandelbrot & Richard Hudson
。How Fractals Can Explain What's Wrong with Wall Street, Benoît Mandelbrot, Feb 1999, Scientific American
。The Drunkard's Walk: How randomness rules our lives, Leonard Mlodinow
