In Tobruk, leading a patrol in no-man's land, he was blown up by a mortar bomb.

Mr Taleb cut his philosophical teeth in the basement of his family home in Lebanon during the long civil war there (another Black Swan), devouring books as mortars flew overhead.

As their mortar shells slammed into the cement walls and aluminum roofs of our hospital, I called my daughters, who were both out of the country at the time.