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Antifragile

Things That Gain from Disorder

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Antifragile

Written by: Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Narrated by: Joe Ochman
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About this listen

From the best-selling author of The Black Swan and one of the foremost thinkers of our time, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, a book on how some things actually benefit from disorder.

In The Black Swan Taleb outlined a problem, and in Antifragile he offers a definitive solution: how to gain from disorder and chaos while being protected from fragilities and adverse events. For what Taleb calls the "antifragile" is actually beyond the robust, because it benefits from shocks, uncertainty, and stressors, just as human bones get stronger when subjected to stress and tension. The antifragile needs disorder in order to survive and flourish.

Taleb stands uncertainty on its head, making it desirable, even necessary, and proposes that things be built in an antifragile manner. The antifragile is immune to prediction errors. Why is the city-state better than the nation-state, why is debt bad for you, and why is everything that is both modern and complicated bound to fail? The audiobook spans innovation by trial and error, health, biology, medicine, life decisions, politics, foreign policy, urban planning, war, personal finance, and economic systems. 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 heard loud and clear.

Extremely ambitious and multidisciplinary, Antifragile provides a blueprint for how to behave - and thrive - in a world we don't understand, and which is too uncertain for us to even try to understand and predict. Erudite and witty, Taleb’s message is revolutionary: What is not antifragile will surely perish.

Please note: The bleeps in the audio are intentional and are as written by the author. No material is censored, and no audio content is missing.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2012 Nassim Nicholas Taleb (P)2012 Random House Audio
Investing & Trading Personal Success Philosophy Social Sciences Sociology Career City Witty Business Innovation Thought-Provoking Wisdom
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What the critics say

"[This] is the lesson of Taleb...and also the lesson of our volatile times. There is more courage and heroism in defying the human impulse, in taking the purposeful and painful steps to prepare for the unimaginable." (Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point)

"[Taleb writes] in a style that owes as much to Stephen Colbert as it does to Michel de Montaigne." (The Wall Street Journal)

"The most prophetic voice of all.... [Taleb is] a genuinely significant philosopher...someone who is able to change the way we view the structure of the world through the strength, originality and veracity of his ideas alone." (GQ)

What listeners say about Antifragile

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antifragile is the answer

A functionally flawless treatise on the failing of modern progress, the state, and academia. This book, if read, will change the reader's perception of all social and economic systems.

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Inspiring Concept...

I thoroughly enjoyed the concept of becoming Antifragile through variability and stressors. The narrator was wonderful and was easy to listen to.

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Totally changed the way I think about the world

This book ties together all of Taleb’s ideas from his previous books, and gives you practical strategies to help you become antifragile.

Antifragile is written in the same style as Taleb’s other books, semi-anecdotal, with many history lessons, and Taleb’s characteristic humour.

You’ll like this book if you’ve read at least Black Swan and Fooled by Randomness, and are looking for a way to avoid getting caught by Black Swan events.

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Refreshing perspective

There are things Taleb writes that is patently false, but the anti-fragile angle at which he views the world is filled to the brim with truth and is refreshing in a world that celebrates fragility as virtue.

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Not for the faint of heart

Nassim Nicholas Taleb is brilliant and his books and writings are masterpieces, however they're not meant for everyone. His books require patience and going over them again and again.
If you want something easy, get the DaVinci Code or something to that genre.

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Almost a 5

This was a great book, with a ton of relevant ideas and strategies. I took more notes while reading this book than I have from the past 10. However, the author's personal feelings and apparent bitterness are shared too frequently for my liking. He calls out many people that he doesn't agree with or like. This detracts from the ideas in the book.

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Brilliant but annoying book, purely annoying performance

A lot of interesting ideas, though I forgot how difficult it is to get through Taleb’s ego-driven logorrhea. Very annoying performance that perfectly matches the content.

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Insightful, profound, original, wordy

The concepts produced by Taleb have changed the way I think about many things. I plan to buy this book in printed form and re-read it. I recommend this book.

My only complaint is that his style is cynical and he uses more words than are necessary to get the point across. It became laborious to stay engaged waiting for his long drawn out, meandering sentences to get to the point. But when the point was reached it was worth it.

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Important Ideas

I think Dr. Taleb has something important to say in his series of books, including this one. I would've read this one first before reading the Black Swan. It is so important to me that I fully understand his ideas that I have tracked down his old research papers in SSRN. In my youth, I was more Dionysus than Apollo. Along the way, I convinced myself that to live in this modern world I had to be less. This book tells me that I should tilt the balance again. Thanks for the thought-provoking, clutter-free, sometimes humorous (albeit on the scathingly critical side) read. Narrator is awesome.

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life changing - applies to all domains

I can't recommend this enough, just for some additional perspective on the craziness that is modern economics.

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