Download Ebook Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder, by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
If you still require a lot more publications Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder, By Nassim Nicholas Taleb as references, going to browse the title and also motif in this site is readily available. You will certainly find even more lots publications Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder, By Nassim Nicholas Taleb in different disciplines. You can likewise as quickly as possible to check out guide that is already downloaded and install. Open it and save Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder, By Nassim Nicholas Taleb in your disk or gizmo. It will reduce you any place you need guide soft data to read. This Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder, By Nassim Nicholas Taleb soft file to read can be recommendation for every person to boost the skill as well as capacity.
Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder, by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Download Ebook Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder, by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder, By Nassim Nicholas Taleb. Adjustment your habit to hang or lose the time to only chat with your friends. It is done by your everyday, do not you feel burnt out? Currently, we will certainly reveal you the new routine that, really it's a very old habit to do that can make your life much more qualified. When feeling burnt out of always talking with your close friends all spare time, you can locate the book entitle Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder, By Nassim Nicholas Taleb then read it.
Getting the e-books Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder, By Nassim Nicholas Taleb now is not kind of hard method. You can not just going for publication shop or collection or borrowing from your friends to review them. This is a quite simple method to specifically get guide by on-line. This on-line book Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder, By Nassim Nicholas Taleb can be among the choices to accompany you when having spare time. It will certainly not waste your time. Think me, the book will reveal you brand-new thing to check out. Just invest little time to open this on-line book Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder, By Nassim Nicholas Taleb as well as read them wherever you are now.
Sooner you obtain guide Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder, By Nassim Nicholas Taleb, faster you could enjoy checking out guide. It will certainly be your turn to maintain downloading the book Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder, By Nassim Nicholas Taleb in provided web link. By doing this, you could really choose that is worked in to obtain your very own e-book on-line. Right here, be the first to obtain the publication qualified Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder, By Nassim Nicholas Taleb and be the very first to understand just how the author suggests the notification and also expertise for you.
It will certainly have no doubt when you are visiting pick this e-book. This impressive Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder, By Nassim Nicholas Taleb publication can be reviewed totally in particular time depending on exactly how typically you open and read them. One to bear in mind is that every publication has their very own production to get by each visitor. So, be the good viewers and also be a better individual after reading this publication Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder, By Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Antifragile is a standalone book in Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s landmark Incerto series, an investigation of opacity, luck, uncertainty, probability, human error, risk, and decision-making in a world we don’t understand. The other books in the series are Fooled by Randomness, The Black Swan, and The Bed of Procrustes.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb, the bestselling author of The Black Swan and one of the foremost thinkers of our time, reveals how to thrive in an uncertain world.
Just as human bones get stronger when subjected to stress and tension, and rumors or riots intensify when someone tries to repress them, many things in life benefit from stress, disorder, volatility, and turmoil. What Taleb has identified and calls “antifragile” is that category of things that not only gain from chaos but need it in order to survive and flourish.
In The Black Swan, Taleb showed us that highly improbable and unpredictable events underlie almost everything about our world. In Antifragile, Taleb stands uncertainty on its head, making it desirable, even necessary, and proposes that things be built in an antifragile manner. The antifragile is beyond the resilient or robust. The resilient resists shocks and stays the same; the antifragile gets better and better.
Furthermore, the antifragile is immune to prediction errors and protected from adverse events. Why is the city-state better than the nation-state, why is debt bad for you, and why is what we call “efficient” not efficient at all? Why do government responses and social policies protect the strong and hurt the weak? Why should you write your resignation letter before even starting on the job? How did the sinking of the Titanic save lives? The book spans innovation by trial and error, life decisions, politics, urban planning, war, personal finance, economic systems, and medicine. 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 loud and clear.
Antifragile is a blueprint for living in a Black Swan world.
Erudite, witty, and iconoclastic, Taleb’s message is revolutionary: The antifragile, and only the antifragile, will make it.
Praise for Antifragile
“Ambitious and thought-provoking . . . highly entertaining.”—The Economist
“A bold book explaining how and why we should embrace uncertainty, randomness, and error . . . It may just change our lives.”—Newsweek
“Revelatory . . . [Taleb] pulls the reader along with the logic of a Socrates.”—Chicago Tribune
“Startling . . . richly crammed with insights, stories, fine phrases and intriguing asides . . . I will have to read it again. And again.”—Matt Ridley, The Wall Street Journal
“Trenchant and persuasive . . . Taleb’s insatiable polymathic curiosity knows no bounds. . . . You finish the book feeling braver and uplifted.”—New Statesman
“Antifragility isn’t just sound economic and political doctrine. It’s also the key to a good life.”—Fortune
“At once thought-provoking and brilliant.”—Los Angeles Times
From the Hardcover edition.
- Sales Rank: #1598311 in Books
- Published on: 2013-01-01
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 7.80" h x .91" w x 5.08" l, .84 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
Amazon.com Review
Amazon Best Books of the Month, December 2012: Fragile things break under stress. But, according to Nassim Nicholas Taleb, there's an entire class of other things that don't simply resist stress but actually grow, strengthen, or otherwise gain from unforeseen and otherwise unwelcome stimuli. Taleb sees degrees of antifragility everywhere, from fasting, mythology, and urban planning to economic, technological, cultural, and biological systems. The wealth of radical thinking in this book astounds; the glossary alone offered more thought-provoking ideas than any other nonfiction book I read this year. That said, Antifragile is far from flawless. As comical as Taleb's rough handling of his favorite targets can be--academics, economists, and tourists, to name a few--his argumentative style boasts gaping holes, non sequiturs aplenty, and at times an almost willfully repugnant tone. Some readers will find Taleb's brashness off-putting; others will embrace it as a charismatic component of the ideas themselves. Either way, no one will finish this book unchanged. --Jason Kirk
From Booklist
Judging by his anecdotes, Taleb interacts with the economic masters of the universe as he jets from New York to London or attends business-politics confabs in Davos, Switzerland. Anything but awed by them, Taleb regards them as charlatans, not as credible experts. Such skepticism toward elites, which imbued Taleb’s The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable (2007), continues in this work, which grapples with a concept Taleb coins as “antifragile.” Not readily reducible to a definition (Taleb takes the whole book to develop the idea), suffice to say here that antifragile’s opposites—economic, political, or medical systems that are vulnerable to sudden collapse—tend to be managed by highly educated people who think they know how systems work. But they don’t, avers Taleb. Their confidence in control is illusory; their actions harm rather than help. In contrast, Taleb views decentralized systems—the entrepreneurial business rather than the bureaucratized corporation, the local rather than the central government—as more adaptable to systemic stresses. Emphatic in his style and convictions, Taleb grabs readers given to musing how the world works. --Gilbert Taylor
Review
“Ambitious and thought-provoking . . . highly entertaining.”—The Economist
“A bold book explaining how and why we should embrace uncertainty, randomness, and error . . . It may just change our lives.”—Newsweek
“Revelatory . . . [Taleb] pulls the reader along with the logic of a Socrates.”—Chicago Tribune
“Startling . . . richly crammed with insights, stories, fine phrases and intriguing asides . . . I will have to read it again. And again.”—Matt Ridley, The Wall Street Journal
“Trenchant and persuasive . . . Taleb’s insatiable polymathic curiosity knows no bounds. . . . You finish the book feeling braver and uplifted.”—New Statesman
“Antifragility isn’t just sound economic and political doctrine. It’s also the key to a good life.”—Fortune
“At once thought-provoking and brilliant.”—Los Angeles Times
“[Taleb] writes as if he were the illegitimate spawn of David Hume and Rev. Bayes, with some DNA mixed in from Norbert Weiner and Laurence Sterne. . . . Taleb is writing original stuff—not only within the management space but for readers of any literature—and . . . you will learn more about more things from this book and be challenged in more ways than by any other book you have read this year. Trust me on this.”—Harvard Business Review
“By far my favorite book among several good ones published in 2012. In addition to being an enjoyable and interesting read, Taleb’s new book advances general understanding of how different systems operate, the great variation in how they respond to unthinkables, and how to make them more adaptable and agile. His systemic insights extend very well to company-specific operational issues—from ensuring that mistakes provide a learning process to the importance of ensuring sufficient transparency to the myriad of specific risk issues.”—Mohamed El-Erian, CEO of PIMCO, Bloomberg
From the Hardcover edition.
Most helpful customer reviews
814 of 864 people found the following review helpful.
As always, an imperfect, infuriating but intriguing book
By Alfred LEUNG
1 Summary
----------
1.1 Introduction
==========
Taleb conveniently quotes one of his friend's summary of this book: "Everything gains or loses from volatility. Fragility is what loses from volatility and uncertainty."
I think the point is better expressed by rephrasing: "Antifragility is what gains from volatility and uncertainty, up to a point. And being antifragile is a good thing."
Well, that's pretty much summarizes this 500-pages-long book. The rest is an accumulation of more or less relevant topics, delivered in Taleb's trademarked seering, holier-than-thou, hero-or-moron style. Why, even in "Dynamic hedging", his first, $100-book on trading exotic options, he was already both immensely entertaining and almost unbearably infuriating.
1.2 A few of the more interesting points:
=========================
1.2.1 Every phenomenon in the world belongs to one of the following categories:
Fragile: vulnerable to unforeseen shocks
Robust: indifferent to shocks
Antifragile: thrive on shocks, up to a point.
That's what Taleb calls the Triad.
1.2.2 Most modern structures are inherently fragile
Salaried employment: while it looks safe on the surface (predictable salary every month) it is subject to the catastrophic risk of losing one's job.
Debt-fueled economies: debt has no flexibility, so these economies can't stand even a slowdown without risking implosion (cf current situation)
Modern societies: efficiency demands are pushing the structures to the maximum, so a little sand in the cogs make the whole edifice totter.
Touristification: turning adventures (kids growing up, people visiting foreign countries) from exciting, dangerous activities into bland, Disneyfied and safe ones.
1.2.3 Ways to be antifragile include:
Stressors: it is healthy to be subject to some punctual stresses to awake the organism from complacency (e.g. irregular meal times, violent exercise or ingesting small amounts of poison)
Barbell strategy: put 90% of your eggs into something super-safe and be very risk-seeking with the other 10% (swing for the fences).
Optionality: get into situations where downside is limited but upside is unlimited (non-linearity)
Redundancy: have more than one way to have things done.
Less is more: don't add unnecessary things.
Tinkering: empiricism is better than top-down academic research
Small is beautiful: large organizations are inherently fragile, but small structures are well adapted to be nimble and profit from unexpected opportunities.
1.2.4 For small troubles, better trust nature and do nothing than bring untested methods that can have tragic unforeseen consequence
Beware of neomania: don't embrace novelty for the sake of it
Stick to time-tested methods: what has stood the test of time has proved to be robust
Don't sweat the small stuff if it can lead to tragedy: radiation used to cure acne leading to leukemia, thalidomide prescribed to reduce morning sickness leading to malformed babies.
1.2.5 An antidote to the lack of accountability seen in the powerfuls who rule us (government officials, corporate honchos, bankers)
Have them have skin in the game, i.e. to share in the downside of their decisions. Taleb quotes the 3000-year-old+ Hammurabi code, "eye for an eye, teeth for a teeth."
2 Review
---------
So, what's the score? As with his other books, I found myself reading every page the first 40-50 pages, then turning the pages faster and faster as the neat, amusing prose turns into Fidel Castro-style interminable ramblings, hyperboles and inaccuracies, annoying personal anecdotes, and worst of all, the silly little tales with his imaginary heroes Nero Tulip and Fat Tony (Tulip seems to be some kind of idealized version of Taleb himself). One or two hours for the first third, 40 minutes for the second and 15 minutes for the last.
And I'll spare (or maybe not) the "very technical" appendix 2 with its silly little formula he seems to be so proud of. Thanks for teaching us high-school math about convexity (Jensen inequality as if it were rocket science? Come on!)
The basic point is sound however: we sure all need a bit more antifragility in our lives.
If we only ditched what is unnecessary (going to the doctor for trivial stuff, seeking novelty for the sake of it, buying stuff we don't need), we'd have gone a long way toward being more robust.
But going beyond that is more problematic: Taleb waxed lyrical about the upside of antifragility, but he says nothing about its cost.
And seeing how he came to his idea from the world of options trading, it looks dishonest. In options trading, when you buy and option and get all the good stuff associated with it (unlimited upside, limited downside), the flipside is that it costs money everyday (time decay). Spending all your time buying options is quite a good way to the poorhouse.
As in the financial world, so in the real world, unless you're talking about "free optionality" (the people who don't have skin in the game that Taleb reviles). Maybe being a free agent beats being an office drone because one doesn't need to fear getting fired, but what about the daily stress of needing to go out and find work without any certainty to get it? That's a cost that's a bit too high for probably most people.
In conclusion, this is an imperfect, overlong and often eye-roll-inducing book (as is usual for Taleb), but it presents an intriguing and original argument for the reader to chew on.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful.
Enjoyable; but Reading "Black Swan" First is Essential
By Hans Gruber
Taleb writes in a sensational style. Although he could write in more academic prose, I suppose that would greatly reduce the market of potential readers. Still, his style is as another reviewer aptly put it: "hero or moron"- in this sense Taleb is rather myopic and has no fear of announcing to the world who he considers a moron. This is refreshing in "Black Swan", but gets a bit tiresome in "Antifragile." At times, it almost gets a little desperate.
Taleb has some fantastic perspectives and a colorful, highly engaging way of using metaphors and stories to weave his arguments. Most of the time, I enjoy it. He is spot-on with his thesis that "antifragile" is the opposite of fragile, and that 'robust' is just not enough. To become 'antifragile' has to do with adaptation, emergence, and viewing things holistically instead of in a reductionist or linear causality/path dependency manner.
To get into a few details here that I took from this book; Taleb has one interesting theme here where I cannot help but think that his love of history and ancient philosophy impacts his position. Taleb argues that anything that is extremely old is most likely "antifragile" because it continues to exist in some form. Granted, Taleb is not talking about a wheel from ancient Greece that still works today...it is the concept of a wheel that continues to endure (for example). Thus, old things are antifragile, and new things risk being fragile. The problem with this position is one of being paradoxical to emergence....there are many "paradigm shifts" (see Kuhn's book "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" if you are unfamiliar- it is a vital concept for this topic) where we do not see the "black swan" until it has occured and radically changed the playing field. I have issues with a conflict of concepts where the old paradigm (the ancient, and often the "antifragile") is shattered by the black swan event (paradigm shift) which replaces the old with a new, likely antifragile construct. This paradox plays throughout Taleb's book, unlike "The Black Swan" where there is no significant paradox in logic.
Lastly, Taleb has many interesting references and concepts he provides to enrich his argument. Notably, he cites Terence Kealey's "the Economic Laws of Scientific Research"...very nice to see the level of research and thought Taleb put into this, and the strength in argument overall.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
Eureka, something to chew on (mentally speaking)
By Roger Carlsen
One of my three favorite books of the summer.
The concept of antifragile is amazing. It will provide the more random areas of your life with a justification that may not exist. Although Taleb builds on earlier books regarding randomness and black swans, the content of this book can easily stand by itself. I should warn you though, if you are like me, I went back and bought several of his earlier books.
I read the kindle version and listened the it on Audible too. The only thing I did not like about this was that the Kindle version did not have page numbers in it unlike many current Kindle books. This is not Kindle's fault. I did love the way that the reader in Audible read the references as part of the text. Readers so often overlook footnotes and references.
Reading on Kindle was fabulous. The ability to link references and people makes the reading a better experience.
Okay, if you are going to read this book please extend the experience. Think YouTube too. Here's an example of what I mean - http://youtu.be/_MYTFWCbDKQ. If you watch this you'll see how much extended value there can be in this kind of activity. Okay, I know what you're thinking, you think you can just go to YouTube and watch. Of course you can. Be the book is better and the book will help you become selective.
Two last things:
1) successful fragilistas won't like Taleb - but they too should know his messages.
2) some of his behavior will appear pompous and arrogant. So what, it is the content and if his personality turns you off during interviews and presentations, read the book. His content to too good to miss.
Now, if you care, my two other favorites for this summer were, "A fighting Chance" and "the Goldfinch". I wonder what Mr. Taleb would think of being in this group?
See all 902 customer reviews...
Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder, by Nassim Nicholas Taleb PDF
Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder, by Nassim Nicholas Taleb EPub
Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder, by Nassim Nicholas Taleb Doc
Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder, by Nassim Nicholas Taleb iBooks
Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder, by Nassim Nicholas Taleb rtf
Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder, by Nassim Nicholas Taleb Mobipocket
Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder, by Nassim Nicholas Taleb Kindle
Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder, by Nassim Nicholas Taleb PDF
Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder, by Nassim Nicholas Taleb PDF
Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder, by Nassim Nicholas Taleb PDF
Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder, by Nassim Nicholas Taleb PDF
