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)

Wow!!!!!

Powerful.. I am interested in seeing how some of these monster ideas mature. A must read for the 21 century.

Wisdom, listen five times then five more times

This book’s message is simple. It’s implementation in life is/can be fractally difficult but endlessly revealing. Decerning the options, barbells, asymmetries and the game itself is a powerfully illuminating way of engaging the world.

Gives a beautiful perspective on life!

This book gives you a perspective shift as the author tackles issues on the micro and the macro level and takes you on his journey to bust fragilistas across different disciplines.

Enjoyable and useful

This book was enjoyable and useful in application to life, broadly (not simply economics or investing). It was clear, cerebral, and entertaining.

Thought provoking

A very stimulating, thought provoking read. Well narrated and fill of ideas challenging the many norms of today. It is a book that needs to be reread multiple times to glean as many nuggets as possible, which I intend to do.

Brilliant book

So much things to think about over and over. Sometimes I wonder how he came up with these ideas.

Bad performance

Ridiculous bleeps in audio make this the worst audiobook. If one can't handle some rough language then Taleb isn't for you.

Great book. Too many pages to present an idea. A little bit ranty sometimes

Could have done the same un 60% of the words. This is one you should read the summary and the expand on the details that call your attention.

Anti-fragility

The nice new world we are living in now is in great need of this book. The idea that stood out to me most is that we are now all considering ourselves as the final product, there is a lack of sacrifice for the greater cause. That really inspired me

Good book, Dull narration

The narrator of "Black Swan" is the best for Taleb's books. This one easily gets me bored on prolonged listening. Should have a hard copy.