Nassim Nicholas Taleb points to the black swan

Nassim Nicholas Taleb of "Black Swan" fame reminds me of the court jesters of medieval Europe. What made them comedic was not their slapstick or bawdy antics, but their ability to speak truth to power. The jester, dressed in his clown suit, might have looked ridiculous, but he told the king the plain truth -- truth that was so overpowering, so obvious and so tragic, that the king and his courtesans could do little but laugh. Taleb addressed a full-capacity crowd at the Hong Kong Gran…