I thought Black Swan was fairly meaningless. It started to raise some interesting ideas about the effect of "black swan" events but then failed to give any insight into dealing with or preparing for those effects beyond vague generalities. I did learn how Taleb likes lifting weights and refuses to run for a bus though.

From what I've heard his other books are similar.

"It started to raise some interesting ideas about the effect of "black swan" events but then failed to give any insight into dealing with or preparing for those effects beyond vague generalities"

that is exactly what Antifagile, the book he wrote after does

I like Taleb but I feel most of the ideas from his books can be written in 10 pages. Although to be fair that's true for most modern non-fiction books.

Yep. Better to read Asimov's foundation trilogy

i have never read these, but it looks like quite the commitment

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundation_series

why is this series so much better than Taleb's books?

The black swan theory, in his basic idea is theorized in the books.

It is a nice reading and you may very well just read the first trilogy to grasp it.