>reading random sections of Antifragile for the umpteenth

>>9633408
This is like waxing poetic about Demons. You do understand Black Swan is the Brothers Karamazov of Taleb, yes?

>>9633418

I don't see how that's true. It's like a fractal where zooming out makes you go from fooled by randomness to black swan to Antifragile.

Never read him OP, what's good about him? I'm been considering picking up his work since it was recommended in an autodidact thread.

>>9633471
Sensible ideas about exposure to upside being equally important to exposure to risk.

Antifragile = exposed to upside, less subject to entropy due to mere risk avoidance (which cannot last forever.)

Talks about the folly of thinking you can plan everything (as the saying goes, no plan survives contact with the battlefield) and proposes systematic exposure to project-relevant upside in place of unilateral projects.

His tone is sometimes chummy and populist-like.

>>9633471
The book is definitely worth a read. It's very unacademic and Taleb is incredibly erudite. Taleb is a massive fucking prick and a huge blow hard, but then again he's Lebanese (born and raised in Lebanon until he went to college) AND lived and worked in New York so it makes sense. You'll know you understand him when you get the desire to punch him in his smug fat face whilst happily nodding in understanding.

He advocates the usage of empiricism to generate heuristics made by men practicing a field rather than theorizing it. His reasoning for this is the Green Lumber Fallacy (You don't need to know anything about wood to make millions buying and selling stock in green lumber; you just need to know how to buy and sell stock) and the fact that the unintelligible is not unintelligent; Herodotus refers to this as Greek thinking. You don't have to know about biochemistry to know that chewing willow bark will cure an ache.

He also comes up with the Antifragile-Robust-Fragile trichotomy. Antifragile things gain from disorder (Think your muscles; exercise is disorder, and your muscles get damaged and grow stronger from it). Fragile things lose from disorder (Think pottery). Robust things are stable to disorder (Think rocks). Nothing is Antifragile or Robust in regards to everything to an infinite degree (Your muscles will tear after a certain point; rocks will break).

The key to success is to put yourself into situations in which you are Antifragile so any disorder is good for you; in the case of finance, if you spend $100 on investments but any one of those investments will yield a $5,000 profit if things turn out well then you're golden. This extends to all walks of life. Happiness can be achieved via the philosophy of Stoicism; if you control your emotions and live a balanced life then disorder can only bring happiness as you have mentally prepared yourself for the worst (Which won't be that bad because you were smart and set yourself up in a manner where "the worst" isn't that bad). In the case of the financial example, "the worst" is "I wasted $100".

>>9634241
this

taleb is required reading

>>9634241
So basically, change yourself so that you thrive in difficulty and uncertainty and you'll thrive in life? Sounds pretty neat, is the book very technical or can someone who knows nothing about economics get it?

The book is definitely a joy to read. I know exactly what you mean by water. THIS is water.

But I wonder about the real import of the concept anti-fragile. I think he's introducing it as a focal point for everything he's saying, but is it really, like, a thing? It breaks down pretty fast even on his own examples if you analyze them. Not that there isn't anything there, but I'd like someone to make it slightly more rigorous, so that everything doesn't end up anti-fragile or nothing does.

>>9634389
Not technical at all but you have to pay attention while reading since it is pretty dense.

>>9634436
That's not a problem, I just don't want to be bombarded with jargon I don't understand in a conversation I'm not part of

>>9634446
He uses his own jargon mostly. It's not too bad, as other people have said, just pay attention

I want someone else to rewrite his books without the teenage humor and low blows

Is Anti-fragile his best or Black Swan?