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3.81 AVERAGE
3.81 AVERAGE
I didn’t even make it past the prologue. I knew that I wouldn’t learn anything from a book that says there is no word for the exact opposite of fragile. It’s called strong. The author should have got a thesaurus instead of making up words. I couldn’t take anything else in this book seriously after reading that.
I started this book and while the core idea of Antifragility was a useful, interesting concept, the book itself just felt like a slog. The author's open and assertive arrogance was entertaining enough in previous books to not be disruptive, but here it combined with the density of the material (and a sense that this density is not particularly well organized to help with understanding) to just make reading less interesting and fun.
It might be that my usual audiobook form just doesn't work here and it could be worthwhile sitting down with the actual book to read with a higher level of focus, but once one is sold on the core idea I'm not sure what more value comes from this.
Worth perhaps noting that the NYT review shared my frustrations (and then some) and the sense of disorganized or hard to follow material is apparently something the author did on purpose to force reviewers to read the book in its entirety. As someone whose more interested in reading to understand, that fact (which I just discovered) seems like a good validation to me of not reading further. I'll focus on those books whose authors are trying to help me understand rather than focusing on making it harder for reviewers to follow.
It might be that my usual audiobook form just doesn't work here and it could be worthwhile sitting down with the actual book to read with a higher level of focus, but once one is sold on the core idea I'm not sure what more value comes from this.
Worth perhaps noting that the NYT review shared my frustrations (and then some) and the sense of disorganized or hard to follow material is apparently something the author did on purpose to force reviewers to read the book in its entirety. As someone whose more interested in reading to understand, that fact (which I just discovered) seems like a good validation to me of not reading further. I'll focus on those books whose authors are trying to help me understand rather than focusing on making it harder for reviewers to follow.
The writer is an unbearable self-loving person that tries to sell his capability of understanding the simplest statistical/stochastical things as rocket science while, at the same time, claiming that everyone else is just too stupid too see this.
The examples he presents are quite simple, obvious and do not really seem to fit the idea of "antifragile" (he does not bother to formally define the concept).
The examples he presents are quite simple, obvious and do not really seem to fit the idea of "antifragile" (he does not bother to formally define the concept).
The book did a good job of changing my view of the world. The writing style of Taleb is better suited for a newspaper feature article, rather than a book. But hey, it got the job done.
The only grudge I have about this book is that the author uses a lot of political examples to prove his point. Politics and history can easily be misinterpreted and attributed to the wrong reasons because there are so many variable at play. Having said that, Taleb still manages to make a point, so this book comes with a very high recommendation.
The only grudge I have about this book is that the author uses a lot of political examples to prove his point. Politics and history can easily be misinterpreted and attributed to the wrong reasons because there are so many variable at play. Having said that, Taleb still manages to make a point, so this book comes with a very high recommendation.
informative
slow-paced
challenging
funny
slow-paced
I'm not sure what made me continue to read this very long book. The author is quite the character, and not always in a good way. I guess it was just an interesting read, regardless of how correct the author's statements were. It presents new way of looking at the world, or at least something new to consider when thinking about many aspects of life and society.
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
Could not get into the concept but maybe it wasn’t the right timing for me. Will try again later
At the core a great critique of the modern world and a warning about the fragility of our systems. Also great insight to define anti-fragile as the negative fragility as opposed to resilience/robustness. Great ideas definitely was worth the time but I wish Taleb were not this angry/rambling/repetitive.