Rarely do I read a book that puts words to ideas that I wasn’t aware I had. Rarely do I like a book by an author with an immense ego and insults all kinds of groups. Rarely do I read a 544 page book that holds my attention.
But Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder
Taleb is well known for his book Black Swan, which came out just as the economic collapse was raging. He is often called “one of the foremost thinkers of our time.” That may be hyperbolic but not by much. Taleb lives life to the beat of a different drummer. It’s as if he’s decided all the presuppositions of life are wrong, and he is going to invent new ones, and the results are counterintuitive insights into economics, sociology, politics, philosophy, and investing. His thoughts are often brilliant.
Of course, to do all of this means you step on a lot of toes. The Nobel Prize people don’t like being labeled as “fixated on experts” and the Wall Street bankers don’t like being called bloodsuckers (not his actual word, but I suspect he’d approve). His dismissive attitude toward others can be caustic.
But I’m getting way off the point. Antifragile is a brilliant book. Taleb looks at the opposite of fragile — which we do not really have a word for — so he invents the word antifragile. This is a condition where a sudden shock actually improves a product, service, perspective, whatever.
For instance, and this is just a minor part of the book but it struck me, we hear a lot about post-traumatic stress disorder. PTSD has been in the headlines a lot lately because of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But, Taleb asks, what about all of those men and women who return from the war as better people? They come home more confident, more accomplished, and simply better people. Why don’t we have a word for that condition?
Well, according to Taleb, he is giving us a word for that: Antifragile. These are things that improve after a shock. They don’t just stabilize or remain static — they get better. And you can apply this concept to everything: investments, relationships, governments, community groups, personal health, even nations.
It’s a fascinating idea that is built upon the work he did in Black Swan. But what held my attention throughout the book was his unique perspective on life. For instance, I loved his insight that business breeds trust and tolerance. Especially (and this is the key point) small business. Taleb is nauseated by large scale markets and corporations, but believes that small commerce is the door to tolerance. “There seems to be a survival advantage to small or medium sized owner operated or family owned companies.” Music to my ears.
Here’s another insight that I appreciate Taleb mentioning: the rich need to occasionally travel “Seneca-style”, which is in uncomfortable ways and to difficult settings. It builds us and makes us better people. It is antifragile.
By the way, his insights on wealth are at times hilarious, such as stating that one of the side effects of wealth is that “people with big houses tend to end up socializing with other people with big houses.” So true!
The book is going to irritate so many different people that it is going to be widely disliked (Taleb even had death threats after Black Swan was published). Anybody involved with a large “prestigious” organization takes a lot of hits from Taleb. So do government and quasi-government agencies. So do large corporations, do-gooder social activists, the Bush Administration, the Obama Administration … the list goes on. That’s because Taleb often focuses on the negatives, pointing out what we are doing wrong. He seldom points to the positive.
Despite the negativity — and it is overwhelming at times — this is a great book. Well worth reading and it goes right to the top of my best of 2013 thus far. Even if you dislike the author, you’ll find his terse insults will make you … ahem … antifragile.