Will You Read: Antifragile: Things that Gain from Disorder by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

November 26, 2012 by Jon.Peters

Antifragile: Things that Gain from Disorder by Nassim Nicholas Taleb; Random House;  November 27, 2012; 544 pages.

Genre: Philosophy

Synopsis: Nassim Nicholas Taleb, highly regarded economist and pop psychologist, proposes a new model for understanding the world. There are three ways to approach life, the robust, fragile, and antifragile. In the face of adversity, the fragile collapse and the robust struggle on but do not adapt. The aptly named antifragile rebuild after being knocked down. Through many anecdotes and the writings of famous philosophers, Taleb builds a case for the “what doesn’t kill me makes me stronger” school of thought.

What the Critics Say: As a how-to guide Antifragile is a mixture of the pretentious and the banal –David Runciman, The Guardian

Also by This Author: The Black Swan and Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in the Markets and Life.

Books Like This: Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner; The Tipping Point: How Little  Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell, The Invisible Gorilla: How Our Intuitions Deceive Us by Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons.

My Gut Reaction: Taleb is a gifted intellectual and a fascinating thinker. This book should be filled with wise asides and unique opinions. Despite this, I don’t think I have the patience to make it through 544 pages of Taleb’s rambling, conceited prose. Here’s a compromise: I’ll wait for a long vacation and the book on tape.

What do you think? Is this book something you’d pick up?