Max Mednik
  • Home
  • About
  • Interests
    • Angel investing
    • Magic
    • Scuba Diving
  • Blog
  • Contact

Readings and musings

Notes on Antifragile by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

3/31/2013

9 Comments

 
Picture
For the last 2 months, my mind has been blown on a daily basis by the book Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder by Nassim Nicholas Taleb.

This is the longest and deepest I've gotten into a book since high school, and I found pretty much every chapter thought-provoking and lifestyle-questioning. I already felt like my mind had been blown, and that was just after finishing the prologue.

"Antifragile" is the word that Taleb coins for the concept of gaining from disorder (the real opposite of fragility, which is not the same thing as "robust"). The book covers the topics of philosophy, finance, math, statistics, lifestyle, food, fitness, education, and history, and it applies various strategies and concepts to finding ways to live more naturally and with more antifragility.

I can see how many people will be angered and offended by the direct manner in which Taleb denounces the professions of consultant, banker, economist, academic, business school professor, soccer mom, and tourist. I think books that question a lot of fundamentals are the only ones that bring actual progress to our lives as human thinkers, and this book does exactly that.

Overall, I took 47 pages of notes on the book (see below), and that sheer quantity is enough to show how much I liked it. It's not easy to distill these into a few bullet points, and I will be trying over the next couple months to come up with some concrete suggestions and techniques to put the book's ideas into practice in my own life. Here are just a handful of lessons and broad concepts that come immediately to mind:

  • There are important nonlinearities in life that many professionals and advice-givers totally ignore but which make a much bigger difference over time than the first-order obvious effects.
  • Many human interventions in health and government come with really bad iatrogenic effects.
  • Things that are in nature are right until proven wrong; things that are human-made are wrong until proven right (which only time can show).
  • Don't be a turkey, and avoid sucker problems. That's 95% of being successful.
  • Via negativa: Focus on what to avoid and remove instead of what to do and add.
  • Find ways to make your life antifragile in the sense of having limited, small downside and high potential upside.
  • Be an adventurous flaneur. Live life to take advantage of new, unforeseen opportunities and volatility.
  • Entrepreneurs are the unsung heroes of antifragility and deserve way more respect than politicians and other non-practitioners and non-risk takers.
  • Innovation is antifragile.
  • Use barbell methods to manage investments and black swan risks. Focus on your exposure (f(x)) instead of trying to predict some variable (x). Predicting or following averages is for suckers.
  • Study the classics, eat and drink the classics, and avoid the media hype or technology for its own sake.

Below are the rest of my notes. I really want to discuss some of this stuff with other readers, so let me know what you think.

9 Comments
Goran
5/29/2014 07:31:58 pm

Hi, Max, love your notes. I'm just reading Antifragile. Can we get these notes again?

Reply
Max
5/30/2014 12:13:13 am

Can you look again? It's using the Scribd plugin.

Reply
Goran
5/30/2014 04:54:28 am

Yes, I can see it now. Thanx for all good book recommendation and notes.

Reply
Kaya
8/28/2016 09:54:10 am

Is there a way I can read it without purchasing Scribed subscription ?

Reply
Max
8/28/2016 12:42:08 pm

I believe you should be able to. It should just show up....

Reply
Sharon
11/16/2017 11:55:19 am

Hi Max! Just wanted to drop a note to say a big thank you. Really appreciate that you took the time to share your thoughts and notes on this book. I was on the fence on whether I should put this book on the short list of my reading pile, and your post convinced me to start asap. Do you think that it's necessary to read 'Black Swan' prior to diving into this book?

you've got a new reader, and hope you continue posting. Cheers!

Reply
Max
11/16/2017 01:42:01 pm

Thanks! Black Swan is awesome. You should definitely read it also, but I don't think it necessarily needs to be read first.

Reply
João Pedro Sousa
8/3/2021 02:21:40 pm

The Scribd thing doesn't show up. Not in Chrome, Edge, or Firefox. I can inspect with the Chrome tool and see that there is something that is supposed to be there. And adblocker is off.
I would like to read the rest of the notes.

Reply
Max
8/3/2021 02:26:50 pm

Looks like the Scribd thing broke. I'm sorry about that. Emailing you offline about that.

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    June 2021
    May 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    April 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    March 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010

    Categories

    All
    Angel Investing
    Cacti
    Cars
    China
    Community Service
    Culture
    Design
    Djing
    Dogs
    Education
    Entertainment
    Entrepreneurship
    Family
    Finance
    Food
    Google
    Happiness
    Incentives
    Investment Banking
    Judaism
    Law
    Lighting
    Magic
    Marketing
    Medicine
    Networking
    Nolabound
    Philosophy
    Professionalism
    Psychology
    Reading
    Real Estate
    Religion
    Romance
    Sales
    Science
    Shangri-La
    Social Entrepreneurship
    Social Media
    Sports
    Teams
    Technology
    Travel
    Turtles
    Ucla
    Venture Capital
    Web Services
    Weddings
    Zen

    Subscribe

    RSS Feed

Picture
Picture
  • Home
  • About
  • Interests
    • Angel investing
    • Magic
    • Scuba Diving
  • Blog
  • Contact