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3.81 AVERAGE
3.81 AVERAGE
Taleb definitely has a writing style that is easy to rub people the wrong way, but I did enjoy reading the concept of anti fragile and surprisingly found out about its connection to Stoicism. The book made me much more aware of "modern" phenomenons where humans tend to overreact / overcompensate / over intervene under the name of "we have to do something". It also made me think more about how to make my professional life less fragile.
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
If you do nothing, read the introduction, cause take-home of this book is simply monumental.
The concept of antifragility is such a valuable intellectual acquisition, so useful and so completely overlooked in the existing literature...and this fact is not lost on the smug author, who writes like a boxer reading Stoic philosophy between bouts.
Like most pop-intellectual lit, you are best served by reading the intro and a few chapters until you get the picture, pick up a few of his best analogies, and tangle with some interesting material...but then it is time to go.
The concept of antifragility is such a valuable intellectual acquisition, so useful and so completely overlooked in the existing literature...and this fact is not lost on the smug author, who writes like a boxer reading Stoic philosophy between bouts.
Like most pop-intellectual lit, you are best served by reading the intro and a few chapters until you get the picture, pick up a few of his best analogies, and tangle with some interesting material...but then it is time to go.
This was a freaking awesome book.
Imagine a very logical, very opinionated person, who writes a book to share their view across a large variety of topics. I don’t agree with all the opinions of the author, and some of them I think are heavily biased toward the author’s personal experience being generalized without taking into account that everyone is different. But even when I disagreed, I still loved reading the book.
Oh, right, the main topic is antifragility, meaning becoming better under chaos (as opposed to something fragile breaking under the same circumstances). That applies to personal life, professional life, financial markets, and more.
But really, the book is about much more than antifragility. If you read one book of this author, this is the one I recommend.
Imagine a very logical, very opinionated person, who writes a book to share their view across a large variety of topics. I don’t agree with all the opinions of the author, and some of them I think are heavily biased toward the author’s personal experience being generalized without taking into account that everyone is different. But even when I disagreed, I still loved reading the book.
Oh, right, the main topic is antifragility, meaning becoming better under chaos (as opposed to something fragile breaking under the same circumstances). That applies to personal life, professional life, financial markets, and more.
But really, the book is about much more than antifragility. If you read one book of this author, this is the one I recommend.
adventurous
challenging
funny
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
Thought provoking write up on modernity and fragility.
DNF, page 170. This might have been more readable had I not also read Taleb's Fooled by Randomness and The Black Swan, but the relative freshness of ideas of those two earlier books - providing an incentive to keep reading past Taleb's continuous whining - was missing here. It also lacks the focus of those books. The ratio of ideas to insults is much too low here, and there are long sections that were downright unreadable. The key idea of retaining flexibility to adapt to unpredictable shocks is worthy of book-length treatment, but Antifragile is all over the place. He shuns evidence for his many wild claims, and actually explicitly criticizes the idea that he should require it, given his opponents are stupid anyways. Yet most of his ideas are emphatically not original, and have often been discussed heavily by members of the professions he denigrates. As a particularly galling example, he is not exactly the first person to note that decisions often have unintended negative consequences - though he straight-facedly asserts that he is (this is given chapter-length treatment).
I should be captivated by Taleb's books. There is a lot of similarity in our educational and professional backgrounds, and we largely share a worldview, an insatiable curiosity about a wide-range of topics, and a key interest in the limitations of human expertise. Coming from a background of considerable privilege that allows him the luxury of near-unlimited time to read and reflect, he should be a beacon. But he is an indefensibly obnoxious human being, whose arrogance seems only to have grown with fame. The result is that he is constitutionally incapable of learning from those with whom he disagrees, and the effect on his credibility as a teacher is crippling.
His earlier books are worth holding your nose and studying, but this one ought to be skipped. It is unoriginal, whatever Taleb thinks. With little to learn, there is no reason to subject yourself to the displeasure of sharing his company. What a pity that a great year of reading has to end with such a poor quality book.
1/5
I should be captivated by Taleb's books. There is a lot of similarity in our educational and professional backgrounds, and we largely share a worldview, an insatiable curiosity about a wide-range of topics, and a key interest in the limitations of human expertise. Coming from a background of considerable privilege that allows him the luxury of near-unlimited time to read and reflect, he should be a beacon. But he is an indefensibly obnoxious human being, whose arrogance seems only to have grown with fame. The result is that he is constitutionally incapable of learning from those with whom he disagrees, and the effect on his credibility as a teacher is crippling.
His earlier books are worth holding your nose and studying, but this one ought to be skipped. It is unoriginal, whatever Taleb thinks. With little to learn, there is no reason to subject yourself to the displeasure of sharing his company. What a pity that a great year of reading has to end with such a poor quality book.
1/5
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
The book is all over the place to be honest, but that’s what I liked about it.
Once he admits he has ADHD it became really clear why the book is the way it is, but that added to the charm. Read it over a few months, a few chapters at a time, and felt like listening to a freeform lecture given by a philosopher.
There are lots of points I don’t agree with, but the language he uses and the way he explains his ideas tickled something in my brain.
Once he admits he has ADHD it became really clear why the book is the way it is, but that added to the charm. Read it over a few months, a few chapters at a time, and felt like listening to a freeform lecture given by a philosopher.
There are lots of points I don’t agree with, but the language he uses and the way he explains his ideas tickled something in my brain.