Antifragile

Things That Gain from Disorder

By: Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Narrated by: Joe Ochman

Length: 16 hrs and 14 mins

Publisher's summary

From the best-selling author of The Black Swan and one of the foremost thinkers of our time, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, a book on how some things actually benefit from disorder.

In The Black Swan Taleb outlined a problem, and in Antifragile he offers a definitive solution: how to gain from disorder and chaos while being protected from fragilities and adverse events. For what Taleb calls the "antifragile" is actually beyond the robust, because it benefits from shocks, uncertainty, and stressors, just as human bones get stronger when subjected to stress and tension. The antifragile needs disorder in order to survive and flourish.

Taleb stands uncertainty on its head, making it desirable, even necessary, and proposes that things be built in an antifragile manner. The antifragile is immune to prediction errors. Why is the city-state better than the nation-state, why is debt bad for you, and why is everything that is both modern and complicated bound to fail? The audiobook spans innovation by trial and error, health, biology, medicine, life decisions, politics, foreign policy, urban planning, war, personal finance, and economic systems. And throughout, in addition to the street wisdom of Fat Tony of Brooklyn, the voices and recipes of ancient wisdom, from Roman, Greek, Semitic, and medieval sources, are heard loud and clear.

Extremely ambitious and multidisciplinary, Antifragile provides a blueprint for how to behave - and thrive - in a world we don't understand, and which is too uncertain for us to even try to understand and predict. Erudite and witty, Taleb’s message is revolutionary: What is not antifragile will surely perish.

Please note: The bleeps in the audio are intentional and are as written by the author. No material is censored, and no audio content is missing.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2012 Nassim Nicholas Taleb (P)2012 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"[This] is the lesson of Taleb...and also the lesson of our volatile times. There is more courage and heroism in defying the human impulse, in taking the purposeful and painful steps to prepare for the unimaginable." (Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point)

"[Taleb writes] in a style that owes as much to Stephen Colbert as it does to Michel de Montaigne." (The Wall Street Journal)

"The most prophetic voice of all.... [Taleb is] a genuinely significant philosopher...someone who is able to change the way we view the structure of the world through the strength, originality and veracity of his ideas alone." (GQ)

I strongly recommend this book

What made the experience of listening to Antifragile the most enjoyable?

Even if I had anything negative to say about this book (which I don't), those negative things would further draw your attention to this book!

What was the most compelling aspect of this narrative?

There were a lot of comparisons to the markets of today I liked.

Which scene was your favorite?

Nero and Fat Tony's views of the current economic situation.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Yes, it made me re-evaluate my thinking about the world and how I can better myself by living a less risky life by having the right KIND of risk.

Any additional comments?

The only negative thing I have to say is that the author promotes his profession as a writer more than I cared to hear.

I love this book!

More than met my expectations. It's one I'll likely listen to and read (study) again. Suggestion: how can you (Taleb) teach the math involved to those whose math skills are buried under 30 years of "lack of use"? Consider using Make It Stick (book) techniques.

A guide for a most plein life

antifragility is a concept with appliance in all areas of life. On my opinion a Taleb's masterpiece.

Martin Luther’s ‘95 Theses’ for the 21st Century

Antifragility in a nutshell: Rocky versus Ivan Drago (Rocky IV), Edmond Dantes versus Fernand Mondego (The Count of Monte Cristo), and Maximus versus Commodus (Gladiator). Those great comeback stories represent skillfully how tough times can build a man’s character. One should should learn to welcome these experiences, perhaps even consciously seek them out.

I do not buy into some of Taleb’s views, such as that all new technologies are necessarily worse than those that have been around for much longer, or that all corporations are evil (the book Conscious Capitalism presents the best arguments here). And, Barbarians to Bureaucrats explains the negative side effects of age, softness and complacency better than any other book I’ve read. That said, he still makes many salient points. This book felt a lot like what could be considered the 95 Theses of the 21st Century in parts – especially considering the current state of institutionalized academia.

Taleb’s views on the importance of trial and error are spot-on. James Dyson, one of my favorite thinkers, succinctly sums up the Edisonian approach to innovation, he himself developing 5,127 prototypes to build the original Dual Cyclone: “Steer clear of projects that require too much maths, and stick to empirical things. You can achieve major breakthroughs by a bit of lateral thinking, and this approach will often lead to new inventions being born out of each other...Keep testing and retesting and believe only the evidence of your own eyes, not formulae or of other people’s opinions. You may have to fly in the face of public opinion, and market research. They can only tell you what HAS happened. No research can tell you what is GOING to happen.”

All in all this was a damn good book, and a perfect homage to the self-reliant!

Extremely well done.

I read Black Swan years ago in college, and I'm really glad I revisited the author. Very well done. Really interesting ideas that are the natural progression from the earlier books. applies the ideas to surprising number of sub-disciplines. Well worth the read.

Interesting

Interesting and loads of theory. Not exactly actionable but still worth having these ideas to consider how to resist virus, economic, etc fragility

Great read

Doesn't matter whether you are in the investment world or not... you need to read this book

Pretty much sums up my views...

...about the modern society. I like how Taleb bring in different references from the different eras, but sometimes he gets way to arrogant for my taste.

wish I had read this in 2012

I remember 2008 well. I wish I had read this in 2012. Here it is 2021 so I guess some one will be reading it in 3021 . I hope so.

Brilliant idea on a high horse

Nassim Nicholas Taleb is presenting a brilliant idea and proof for it but choosing to do so in a complex way to come off as even more brilliant.

He wants to be set apart from the academia he is criticizing but his way of storytelling is very much like the someone schooled at a prestigious institution. The book is filled with references and fluff that makes me convinced Mr. Taleb wants to impress first, share knowledge second. Add a narrative that from time to time is like an angry dog trapped in a corner, trying hard to be loud and fight for his space.

This is unfortunate, because the essence of the book, the message Mr. Taleb wants to send to the world, is so worth listening to. I just wish this book would have been cut in half, removing everything but that essence and selected stories to support it.