In my fourth review here, I am going to be reviewing Antifragile by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. This book discusses how different things actually gain from randomness, a concept unthought of by most people. There are things in the world that go beyond just robust, so Taleb coined the term antifragile, which includes these class of things that gain from randomness. We will get into a short review of the book, then the 8-point scale and some big takeaways.
Link to order on Amazon here.
The Basics
Number of pages: 423
Time spent reading per page: 100 seconds
Implied amount of time to read the whole book: 11.75 hours
Chapters: 25
Genres: Philosophy, Economics, History, Science
Audience: Anyone
Very Short Summary
This book is one that deals with entities that gain from randomness, one of which are us humans. The book proves empirically how, up to a point, one should try to inject a solid amount of randomness in their lives so their bodies can build up resistance and hence, become less fragile (just use the example of probiotics). The book is incredibly informative on some of the ways historhy has failed in the past by taking an interventionist approach (specifically in economics, medicine, exercise and more), and thus removing randomness from systems that actually need a little bit of it to thrive. Taleb does an awesome job with this book of disproving some commonly held beliefs. It really changed the way I view a number of different areas of my life because it makes clear that exposing antifragile systems to a little bit of downside pays off in the long run much more than removing that downside in the name of stability.
The 8-Point Scale
- Readability (1/10)
One of the biggest shortcomings of the book. Sometimes just got too repetitive to where reading it felt a little bit more like a task than an enjoyable experience and generally, the book takes a while to finish and has some components that could be omitted or at least reduced.
2. Transparency (9/10)
Taleb is able to explain this concept of antifragility, this new word and the entire basis of the book, in a way that makes total sense. As for other ideas, he takes sometimes hard to reach topics and makes sure they are put in the way a reader can understand. He also signals to the reader whenever a section may get a little bit technical, which is very helpful.
3. Applicability (8/10)
Pretty easy to apply some of the ideas — one thing I did after reading this was walk up stairs whenever I can — it is only a minor point in the book but a change I thought was appropriate. Trying to limit exposure to things that have not withstood the test of time — mainly tons of pills that say they do certain things but have hidden side effects — is another applicable point. Some parts get abstract at times and talk about unapplicable concepts.
4. Excitement (5/10)
Not the most exciting read, but there are some cool examples that are embedded within the text that I am sure will spark a subinterest during the book. For me, I immediately wanted to pick up a book on philosophy after reading this book — Taleb draws on a ton of ideas from the field that are some of the most exciting parts of the book.
5. Importance (9/10)
For the world at large, this book is hugely important, it discusses overintervention in the medical field that have big implications as well as Taleb’s favorite example — the 2008 financial crisis.
6. Accomplishment (10/10)
Getting through this book is a task at times and I definitely feel like I learned a lot of information from a great variety of fields.
7. Integration (6/10)
Very easy to implement some of the changes from the book, at times the book deals with the personal (i.e. you), but at times it gets both general and critical of something which is out of the locus of control of the typical reader.
8. Idea-Shaping (8/10)
Changed the way I view some pretty important things, opened me up to thinking about the average human as an antifragile system that gains from some level of disorder.
OVERALL RATING: 5.6/8.0
Big Takeaways
- Try to inject some randomness into your life. It will change you for the better in many instances. Eat different things at different times of the day, take showers with different temps, walk barefoot, these are some of the examples outlined from the text — there are likely more that I am missing.
- Trust things that have withstood the test of time. Things that have been around for a thousand years are much more likely to be around for a thousand more than something that has been around for one year. This goes for medicine true, as you should only be utilizing modern medicine when you really need it, which probably is not on a regular basis.
- Cut out the fancy gym equipment. If you want to get fit, start deadlifting. I may actually write more about fitness and some of it will draw off this idea that fancy gym equipment is not the best way to get fit (again there were strong people 1000 years ago who did not have access to a treadmill).
- Understand Optionality. When you have an option whether or not to do something, it is almost always valuable. It is repeated throughout the book but can be a difficult concept to grasp at times.
- Have the potential to gain more than you can possibly lose. This is the essence of assymetric gains and is available for many things in the class of antifragility.
- Don’t listen to people who try to forecast everything. Because they are exercising their own optionality — they have more to gain (tooting their own horn when they were right) than they possibly have to lose (staying silent when they turn out to be wrong).
- Put your money where your mouth is. See my review #2 on Skin in the Game.
- Take risks that exhibit the property of Big Takeaway 5. Become an entreprenuer.
- If they spend exorbitant amounts of money on marketing, maybe don’t buy it. Both the most essential and the best things need no marketing.
Summary
A long book but a really solid book. A lot to learn, and like I said earlier through reading this book you will not only be introduced to the whole new concept of antifragility, but I am almost sure that Taleb will explain some common misconception in a way that you have never thought about before — especially when it comes to consumerism and you realize that producers stand to make a profit from you buying their product, you begin to look at tons of things in a whole new way. Also, the book really emphasizes getting back to the roots of humanity which I think is really insightful for many readers who obviously get caught up in our hyper-technological world.
