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Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder: 3 Paperback – 28 January 2014

by Nassim Nicholas Taleb (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 7,004 ratings
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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, Skin in the Game, 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

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Previous page
  1. Book 3 of 5
    Incerto
  2. Print length
    544 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publication date
    28 January 2014
  5. Dimensions
    13.03 x 2.95 x 20.17 cm
  6. ISBN-10
    0812979680
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0812979688
  8. See all details
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  1. Antifragility is beyond resilience or robustness. The resilient resists shocks and stays the same; the antifragile gets better.
    Highlighted by 7,745 Kindle readers
  2. The excess energy released from overreaction to setbacks is what innovates!
    Highlighted by 6,031 Kindle readers
  3. At no point in history have so many non-risk-takers, that is, those with no personal exposure, exerted so much control. The chief ethical rule is the following: Thou shalt not have antifragility at the expense of the fragility of others.
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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

About the Author

Nassim Nicholas Taleb has devoted his life to problems of uncertainty, probability, and knowledge. He spent nearly two decades as a businessman and quantitative trader before becoming a full-time philosophical essayist and academic researcher in 2006. Although he spends most of his time in the intense seclusion of his study, or as a flâneur meditating in cafés, he is currently Distinguished Professor of Risk Engineering at New York University's Polytechnic Institute. His main subject matter is "decision making under opacity"--that is, a map and a protocol on how we should live in a world we don't understand.

Taleb's books have been published in forty-one languages.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Random House Trade; Reprint edition (28 January 2014)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 544 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0812979680
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0812979688
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 13.03 x 2.95 x 20.17 cm
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 7,004 ratings

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Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

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Nassim Nicholas Taleb spent more than two decades as a risk taker before becoming a full-time essayist and scholar focusing on practical, philosophical, and mathematical problems with chance, luck, and probability. His focus in on how different systems handle disorder.

He now spends most of his time in the intense seclusion of his study, or as a flâneur meditating in cafés. In addition to his life as a trader he spent several years as an academic researcher (12 years as Distinguished Professor at New York University's School of Engineering, Dean's Professor at U. Mass Amherst).

He is the author of the Incerto (latin for uncertainty), accessible in any order (Skin in the Game, Antifragile, The Black Swan, The Bed of Procrustes, and Fooled by Randomness) plus a technical version, The Technical Incerto (Statistical Consequences of Fat Tails). Taleb has also published close to 55 academic and scholarly papers as a backup, technical footnotes to the Incerto in topics ranging from Statistical Physics and Quantitative Finance to Genetics and International affairs. The Incerto has more than 250 translations in 50 languages.

Taleb believes that prizes, honorary degrees, awards, and ceremonialism debase knowledge by turning it into a spectator sport.

""Imagine someone with the erudition of Pico de la Mirandola, the skepticism of Montaigne, solid mathematical training, a restless globetrotter, polyglot, enjoyer of fine wines, specialist of financial derivatives, irrepressible reader, and irascible to the point of readily slapping a disciple." La Tribune (Paris)

A giant of Mediterranean thought ... Now the hottest thinker in the world", London Times

"The most prophetic voice of all" GQ

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Top reviews from Australia

Ric Raftis
5.0 out of 5 stars Heavy going at times but worth it.
Reviewed in Australia on 7 August 2023
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This would have to be one of the most interesting books I have read. It is thoroughly researched and extensively referenced. What I liked most was the author’s defiance of convention and posited his own ideas with complete and compelling arguments. I was exposed in the book to many new words, which I found fascinating. The glossary too warrants mention as a valuable resource for future reference.
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"davidreimers"
5.0 out of 5 stars Powerful
Reviewed in Australia on 4 September 2022
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‘Wind extinguishes a candle but energises fire.’

That’s the opening line. If that line resonates with you, buy the book.
2 people found this helpful
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Melissa Yannopoulo
4.0 out of 5 stars Intriguing
Reviewed in Australia on 15 March 2021
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Keeps you engaged, wanting to read more
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XO5
5.0 out of 5 stars Every scientist needs to read this
Reviewed in Australia on 23 June 2022
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Every scientist and science student should read this.
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Lovely Victor
5.0 out of 5 stars to paraphrase another reader if it resonates at all you should read it
Reviewed in Australia on 17 February 2024
my favourite book and likely to remain the most important book I've ever read
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Nick Yang
5.0 out of 5 stars Good book
Reviewed in Australia on 11 March 2019
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Item as described.
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Stuart Morris
3.0 out of 5 stars but brilliant all the same
Reviewed in Australia on 2 June 2017
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A little dense, but brilliant all the same.
2 people found this helpful
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D. Hawthorne
5.0 out of 5 stars The fooled-by-data effect is accelerating
Reviewed in Australia on 27 August 2018
The author does rail against the anti-intellectualism of the modern world. In particular, he detests the dishonesty of modern academia, which he accuses of preferring theory over practice. And that practice should embrace the inherent variation of the modern world.

My favourite quote is: 'The fooled-by-data effect is accelerating. There is a nasty phenomenon called "Big Data" in which researchers have brought cherry-picking to an industrial level. Modernity provides too many variables (but too little data per variable), and the spurious relationships grow much, much faster than real information, as noise is convex and information is concave.'

This book is definitely confronting. But it is well-written and should be accessible to the general reader.
5 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Thiago
5.0 out of 5 stars Provocativo
Reviewed in Brazil on 6 May 2024
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Nem sempre eu concordei com o que Taleb escreveu, mas é impossível ler o livro e afirmar que não há qualquer ideia ou provocação que não te fez pensar. Apesar de ser um pouco prolixo e repetitivo por momentos, o livro é agradável e vale muito para refletir sobre nossos modelos mentais. Recomendo!
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Kunal Desai
5.0 out of 5 stars Mind Shifter! A Must-Read! Amazingly Well Written!
Reviewed in Canada on 24 July 2022
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This book is about understanding the importance of randomness and having positions and making decisions where the risk is uncorrelated. It is very well written and is also a great history lesson. It can be slightly intense at times as the content is dense and heavy, but the stories used to support his views are very well narrated. Take actions and options that offer an unlimited and positive asymmetrical payout for positive externalities, but reduce your downside with unfavorable outcomes. A book on the philosophy of how to get stronger from randomness and volatility. One of the most useful books I have read thus far in my life.
One person found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing! Insightful! Highly recommend
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 9 April 2024
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This is my 3rd book from Nassim Taleb. I'm a huge fan of his writing style and the insights from all walks of life from mathematics to philosophy to health. The notions of volatility, fragile, Antifragile, ... Can be applied everywhere
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5.0 out of 5 stars Must-read
Reviewed in Italy on 22 July 2023
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Probably the book that influenced my thinking the most. Incredibly concrete, engaging, and useful.

It should be required reading in high school, in my opinion.
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Evgeny Vasyuk
5.0 out of 5 stars À mon avis, c'est le meilleur livre de Taleb
Reviewed in France on 30 June 2023
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À mon avis, c'est le meilleur livre de Taleb.
One person found this helpful
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