Nassim N. Taleb is a former trader turned scholar and essayist. He is interested in probability, uncertainty, and randomness. He is currently Distinguished Professor of Risk Engineering at New York University Polytechnic Institute. His main subject matter is "decision making under opacity", that is, a map and a protocol on how we should live in a world we don't understand.

His works are grouped under the general title Incerto (Latin for uncertainty), composed of a trilogy accessible in any order (Antifragile, The Black Swan, and Fooled by Randomness) plus two mathematical and philosophical addenda.