'The Black Swan' - NYU supplement- what intrigues you?

What intrigues you? Tell us about one work of art, scientific achievement, piece of literature, method of communication, or place in the world (a film, book, performance, website, event, location, etc.), and explain its significance to you.

I'm majoring in actuarial science, but need help making it more personal! Thanks :)

"Not matching the idea of success others expect from you is only painful if that's what you are seeking" claimed Nassim Nicholas Taleb in his book The Black Swan. In addition to instilling in me a passion to venture into the world of the unknown and try to predict the unpredictable, The Black Swan helped me view life in a whole new manner. The book, written by a professor of risk management, introduced me to concepts used in statistics and actuarial science today. The use of ideas such as deviations, bell curves, and epistemic limitations sparked an interest in actuarial science for me while also bringing up a larger idea in life - one's blindness with respect to randomness. Ironically, the book may ultimately be mocking actuaries and their attempts to predict the unpredictable. As an actuary, I will be attempting to place occurring events on a bell curve and concocting an explanation to decrease this idea of randomness, when in reality, one cannot predict "black swan" events and their massive impact on everyday life. This idea, in essence, was somewhat of an oasis that I found in my world of number crunching and problem-solving, and I hope to keep the ideas in the story present as I work to stifle randomness an actuary. I believe after reading this story, I can use the ideas to my benefit in a career that follows my definition of success.

i thinks its really good, but i see like what you mean by making it more personal, but its going to be hard cause i wouldnt know how you would include that. maybe if like if you go more indepth about finding out what you really want to do like an awakening or something. like your no longer that undecided person. i honestly dont know these are really just some suggestions if you want to do something like that

Great essay, I really enjoyed reading it. When I say elaborate, I wish that you could connect the themes/ideas that you found in Black Swan to your personal life. The people reading this will most likely know the factual aspects of your subject, so be more creative and go in depth about how this idea of "blindness w respect to randomness" has appeared in everyday situations/events for you. I hope that this helped :p and please take a look at my essay (: thank you so much!