Introducing new concepts into public understanding is extremely difficult. A lot of interesting observations about the "middle universe" (phenomenon occurring at a scale that can be observed by humans) have been made already because humans and civilization has been around for millennia. Very rarely does a book introduce an entirely new concept introduced into the public understanding. Even more rare that the concept has been hiding in plain sight all along. Antifragile is one such book. It introduces a fundamentally different way of thinking about systems; from biological, to economic, to educational. It is as if we have discovered a new way to measure a system.
The premise of the book is extremely simple and is summarized in the first sentence: "Wind extinguishes a candle and energizes fire." Design a system that embraces volatility "Be the fire and wish for the wind." If minor variations in environment are harmful, then the system is fragile, if they are beneficial, they are antifragile. Candle is fragile, fire is antifragile. The existing words for describing systems such as robust and adaptive only describe the amount of performance degradation as a result of volatility (minimal or no loss of performance). For some reason, until this book was written, the phenomenon that a system can indeed benefit from volatility was very alien. This book lays out a compelling argument that such systems do exist, provides numerous examples of such systems, and provides a blue print for building such a system. He demonstrates how antifragility has helped us in medicine, finance, science, art, food, entertainment, and what not!
The message of the book can be summarized in one statement: protect yourself from fragility. This is done in a very intelligent way. You need not have an accurate predictive knowledge about the system as long as you know how to act. This knowledge of acting in various situations, and more importantly, the option to exercise this choice of action, in Taleb's opinion, more important the prediction about the system itself. Taleb calls it optionality and rule of thumb heuristics. This book also has a hidden and very deep insight about time, which is, time breaks fragile things. I am reminded of a Sanskrit saying.
The premise of the book is extremely simple and is summarized in the first sentence: "Wind extinguishes a candle and energizes fire." Design a system that embraces volatility "Be the fire and wish for the wind." If minor variations in environment are harmful, then the system is fragile, if they are beneficial, they are antifragile. Candle is fragile, fire is antifragile. The existing words for describing systems such as robust and adaptive only describe the amount of performance degradation as a result of volatility (minimal or no loss of performance). For some reason, until this book was written, the phenomenon that a system can indeed benefit from volatility was very alien. This book lays out a compelling argument that such systems do exist, provides numerous examples of such systems, and provides a blue print for building such a system. He demonstrates how antifragility has helped us in medicine, finance, science, art, food, entertainment, and what not!
The message of the book can be summarized in one statement: protect yourself from fragility. This is done in a very intelligent way. You need not have an accurate predictive knowledge about the system as long as you know how to act. This knowledge of acting in various situations, and more importantly, the option to exercise this choice of action, in Taleb's opinion, more important the prediction about the system itself. Taleb calls it optionality and rule of thumb heuristics. This book also has a hidden and very deep insight about time, which is, time breaks fragile things. I am reminded of a Sanskrit saying.
kālaḥ pachati bhūtāni, kālaḥ saṃharate prajāḥ |
kālaḥ supteṣhu jāgarti, kālo hi duratikramaḥ ||
kālaḥ supteṣhu jāgarti, kālo hi duratikramaḥ ||
The writing is very colorful. Taleb does not pull his punches and openly mocks people who are benefited by fragility. Terms like fragilistas, IANDs (International Associations of Name Droppers), Stiglitz syndrome, lecturing birds how to fly, horizontal friend, Fat Tony, etc., are funny, and even more so in the context. Whenever Taleb takes a position opposing someone, he names them, and gives a reason as to why are they full of shit. What I respect about Taleb is that he does not comment on things that he does not know or fully understand. For a book that introduces a fundamentally new concept, this book is very "non-technical".
Are there things that I do not like in this book? Yes. Would I change some aspects of it? Sure. Is the language at some places childish? Undoubtedly. Can I spill a bottle of ink on the barbaric outcomes that are a consequence of making systems antifragile? You bet! Irrespective of all of them, I would recommend everyone to read this book, you will understand a new and fundamental property of systems, and as a bonus, the book is entertaining (in a YA kinda way!).
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