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)

Excellent, poignant, and well delivered

This is one of my top ten favorite books ever written. Taleb does incredible research, pulls no punches, and unapologetically goes after the worst of our society. He is brilliant and writes incredibly well.

His views are interesting, even though he a libera

seems like a smart guy but has some really false conclusions. Very interesting which is the point of any endeavor.

one of the best....

...books I have ever read. I am about to read it again. at this time.

Solid Ideas for Life

This is such a great perspective building book, a little heavy with the Latin, and just really great; you gotta know this stuff

Not for everyone but the insights are incredible

Taleb’s style is unique and some may find the way he presents his topics as snarky or pompous, but he backs himself up with statistics and valid arguments.

Best book I've read in my adult life

Very enjoyable read! I feel like the last time I've read a book that had as much impact on how I view the world was when I read Zarathustra in high school. This book by Taleb was also filled with about as many eyebrow raises.

Excellent, it changed the way I think

Well written and interesting. Makes perfect sense and easy and clear to understand. Highly recommended.

His magnum opus

Taleb gets better with every book, and this distillate and expansion on his big idea runs it to its logical conclusion in different fields.

Excellence

Excellent writing that forces one to challenge their beliefs. But the performance with bleeps is annoying

The book changed the way I view life.

The book changed the way I view life. Entrepreneurs are the lifeblood of wealthy nations and academics take the credit. It feels as though we put a lot of money into higher education the should be used for entrepreneurs.