Guest Posted April 23, 2013 Share Posted April 23, 2013 I just started this. So far, so good. His twitter account is pretty entertaining too. He's going off on some economic professor right now. For instance: "@WhelanKarl So you are incapable of commenting on substance because you are a bullshitter?" Epic. haha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcollon Posted April 23, 2013 Share Posted April 23, 2013 I'm about half way through the book and have enjoyed it so far. There are some interesting parts on education and "teaching birds to fly", which I enjoyed. I also like reading about Taleb's reading habits and how he grew up reading differently than many people do today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
prunes Posted April 24, 2013 Share Posted April 24, 2013 Enjoying this much more than I expected to. My favorite book of his, having previously read Fooled by Randomness and The Black Swan. To put it mildly, Taleb has a tendency to get carried away with his own brilliance. Reading the book, I frequently think of a quote from The Big Lebowski: "You're not wrong, Walter. You're just an asshole." You all might be interested in the following, which Taleb posted to his twitter feed today: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B_31K_MP92hURjZxTkxUTFZnMVk/edit?pli=1-- "textbook-style Lectures On Fat Tails and (Anti)Fragility" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liberty Posted April 24, 2013 Share Posted April 24, 2013 To put it mildly, Taleb has a tendency to get carried away with his own brilliance. Reading the book, I frequently think of a quote from The Big Lebowski: "You're not wrong, Walter. You're just an asshole." That's kind of my feeling about Taleb; sometimes his ego can get in the way, though at other times it adds spice to works that could otherwise be dry. I guess it evens out for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boilermaker75 Posted May 27, 2015 Share Posted May 27, 2015 I have a favor to ask someone who has the kindle version. Taleb used a phrase, either Italian or French, for a face that should be slapped. Could you look up the phrase for me? I know there is a German word for a face that should be slapped, but I am looking for the Italian or French expression. TIA, Boiler Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeverLoseMoney Posted May 28, 2015 Share Posted May 28, 2015 I have a favor to ask someone who has the kindle version. Taleb used a phrase, either Italian or French, for a face that should be slapped. Could you look up the phrase for me? I know there is a German word for a face that should be slapped, but I am looking for the Italian or French expression. TIA, Boiler Found it! It's in French: tête à baffe Here is the quote from the book: "I was in Milan trying to explain antifragility to Luca Formenton, my Italian publisher (with great aid from body language and hand gestures). I was there partly for the Moscato dessert wines, partly for a convention in which the other main speaker was a famous fragilista economist. So, suddenly remembering that I was an author, I presented Luca with the following thought experiment: if I beat up the economist publicly, what would happen to me (other than a publicized trial causing great interest in the new notions of fragilita and antifragilita)? You know, this economist had what is called a tête à baffe, a face that invites you to slap it, just like a cannoli invites you to bite into it. Luca thought for a second … well, it’s not like he would like me to do it, but, you know, it wouldn’t hurt book sales. Nothing I can do as an author that makes it to the front page of Corriere della Sera would be detrimental for my book. Almost no scandal would hurt an artist or writer." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boilermaker75 Posted May 28, 2015 Share Posted May 28, 2015 I have a favor to ask someone who has the kindle version. Taleb used a phrase, either Italian or French, for a face that should be slapped. Could you look up the phrase for me? I know there is a German word for a face that should be slapped, but I am looking for the Italian or French expression. TIA, Boiler Found it! It's in French: tête à baffe Here is the quote from the book: "I was in Milan trying to explain antifragility to Luca Formenton, my Italian publisher (with great aid from body language and hand gestures). I was there partly for the Moscato dessert wines, partly for a convention in which the other main speaker was a famous fragilista economist. So, suddenly remembering that I was an author, I presented Luca with the following thought experiment: if I beat up the economist publicly, what would happen to me (other than a publicized trial causing great interest in the new notions of fragilita and antifragilita)? You know, this economist had what is called a tête à baffe, a face that invites you to slap it, just like a cannoli invites you to bite into it. Luca thought for a second … well, it’s not like he would like me to do it, but, you know, it wouldn’t hurt book sales. Nothing I can do as an author that makes it to the front page of Corriere della Sera would be detrimental for my book. Almost no scandal would hurt an artist or writer." Thank you very much! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cobafdek Posted May 28, 2015 Share Posted May 28, 2015 I have a favor to ask someone who has the kindle version. Taleb used a phrase, either Italian or French, for a face that should be slapped. Could you look up the phrase for me? I know there is a German word for a face that should be slapped, but I am looking for the Italian or French expression. TIA, Boiler Obvious question: how do you plan to deploy it? Regarding a member of the administration? Fellow faculty? Alumni member? Members of the student body? None of the above? Do you need to reply by PM for your self-protection? Full disclosure: I can make good use of this myself. Thanks for bringing it up! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liberty Posted May 28, 2015 Share Posted May 28, 2015 Found it! It's in French: tête à baffe If you want to internationalize it even more, the Quebec-french version would be "tête à claque" (literally: head for slapping) :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boilermaker75 Posted June 18, 2015 Share Posted June 18, 2015 I have a favor to ask someone who has the kindle version. Taleb used a phrase, either Italian or French, for a face that should be slapped. Could you look up the phrase for me? I know there is a German word for a face that should be slapped, but I am looking for the Italian or French expression. TIA, Boiler Obvious question: how do you plan to deploy it? Regarding a member of the administration? Fellow faculty? Alumni member? Members of the student body? None of the above? Do you need to reply by PM for your self-protection? Full disclosure: I can make good use of this myself. Thanks for bringing it up! My wife was with her Mom at an event at a retirement facility. Two women were walking and my mother-in-law knew one of them so the one she knew stopped to talk. My wife mentioned that the other women was really annoyed at the disruption in her walk and my wife imitated the look she had on her face. I replied a face that should be slapped because I could not recall the French phrase. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rkbabang Posted December 7, 2016 Share Posted December 7, 2016 If anyone still hasn't read Antifragile and would like to it is on sale today almost everywhere for $1.99 (ebook version). Amazon.com Apple Google Play Kobo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boilermaker75 Posted December 7, 2016 Share Posted December 7, 2016 If anyone still hasn't read Antifragile and would like to it is on sale today almost everywhere for $1.99 (ebook version). Amazon.com Apple Google Play Kobo Thanks! I have a hard back copy, but it is nice to also have it in ebook format. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KinAlberta Posted December 7, 2016 Share Posted December 7, 2016 This (see below) is my experience with his writing style. Still Came away with some interesting new perspectives. "This book is a convoluted mess of ideas and made up words with a loose and lousy sentence structure. Taleb made a fortune betting against the market, a few times. He does not have anything great to offer here. Recommend reading Dan Kahneman, Nate Silvers, or Sam Harris for substance. " https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/antifragile/id522380506?mt=11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rkbabang Posted December 7, 2016 Share Posted December 7, 2016 This (see below) is my experience with his writing style. Still Came away with some interesting new perspectives. "This book is a convoluted mess of ideas and made up words with a loose and lousy sentence structure. Taleb made a fortune betting against the market, a few times. He does not have anything great to offer here. Recommend reading Dan Kahneman, Nate Silvers, or Sam Harris for substance. " https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/antifragile/id522380506?mt=11 I enjoyed Antifragile, it wasn't life changing or anything, but made you think about things in a different way at least while reading it. I agree with you about Dan Kahneman and Sam Harris. I've never read anything by Nate Silver, a quick search only lists one book on Amazon, "The Signal and the Noise". It looks interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TwoCitiesCapital Posted December 15, 2016 Share Posted December 15, 2016 This (see below) is my experience with his writing style. Still Came away with some interesting new perspectives. "This book is a convoluted mess of ideas and made up words with a loose and lousy sentence structure. Taleb made a fortune betting against the market, a few times. He does not have anything great to offer here. Recommend reading Dan Kahneman, Nate Silvers, or Sam Harris for substance. " https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/antifragile/id522380506?mt=11 I enjoyed Antifragile, it wasn't life changing or anything, but made you think about things in a different way at least while reading it. I agree with you about Dan Kahneman and Sam Harris. I've never read anything by Nate Silver, a quick search only lists one book on Amazon, "The Signal and the Noise". It looks interesting. I can confirm that The Signal and the Noise was good and definitely got me thinking about forecasting differently. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CorpRaider Posted April 12, 2017 Share Posted April 12, 2017 Yeah, I can't read him. I've started them all and finished none. Seems like a bunch of hypothesis with obscure classical references thrown in for totally unrelated bona fides. He's like Dennis Miller without any attempt at humor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jurgis Posted April 12, 2017 Share Posted April 12, 2017 Yeah, I can't read him. ... Seems like a bunch of hypothesis with obscure classical references thrown in for totally unrelated bona fides. +10 or so 8) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
handycap5 Posted April 12, 2017 Share Posted April 12, 2017 I find it interesting that his tax cab driver example being antifragile is looking more dubious. Not critical of him or the analogy, just amazed how fast the world changes... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spekulatius Posted April 16, 2017 Share Posted April 16, 2017 Yeah, I can't read him. ... Seems like a bunch of hypothesis with obscure classical references thrown in for totally unrelated bona fides. +10 or so 8) I liked "Fooled by randomness". The rest of his books are just repetitions of the same idea, written with pompous prose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SharperDingaan Posted April 16, 2017 Share Posted April 16, 2017 Yeah, I can't read him. ... Seems like a bunch of hypothesis with obscure classical references thrown in for totally unrelated bona fides. +10 or so 8) I liked "Fooled by randomness". The rest of his books are just repetitions of the same idea, written with pompous prose. These were great books! ;) Their only crime is that they were disruptive, & revealed way too many secrets. His prose is just a satire on the academic community - by someone who 'did/does', versus 'preaches' SD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest longinvestor Posted April 16, 2017 Share Posted April 16, 2017 Yeah, I can't read him. ... Seems like a bunch of hypothesis with obscure classical references thrown in for totally unrelated bona fides. +10 or so 8) I liked "Fooled by randomness". The rest of his books are just repetitions of the same idea, written with pompous prose. These were great books! ;) Their only crime is that they were disruptive, & revealed way too many secrets. His prose is just a satire on the academic community - by someone who 'did/does', versus 'preaches' SD +1 Everyone is correct because everyone lives in Mediocristan. Only Taleb lives in Extremistan. Don't get the sense that he's looking for approval. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peregrino Posted May 19, 2017 Share Posted May 19, 2017 Like some who have commented, I found it hard to get through the hardback version when it first came out a few years ago. I had a lot of momentum in the early chapters because the concept was new to me and I found it neat. But then I put it down and never picked it back up. Recently I listened to the audio version over the course of a few weeks during my commute and very much enjoyed it. I think it's a much better medium for the message. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest longinvestor Posted May 19, 2017 Share Posted May 19, 2017 Recently I listened to the audio version over the course of a few weeks during my commute and very much enjoyed it. I think it's a much better medium for the message. I'm listening to the book as we speak and agree that the medium is much better than print for some books. I have lots of windshield time and this is perfect to make the ride productive Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spekulatius Posted December 31, 2022 Share Posted December 31, 2022 (edited) The ebook can be bought again for $1.99, if so inclined: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0083DJWGO?tag=slickdeals&ascsubtag=0035a936892211edaec84a71662b62f70INT Edited December 31, 2022 by Spekulatius Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flesh Posted January 2, 2023 Share Posted January 2, 2023 I love all his books. I'm buying them all to read (used audible) so I can l have them in the inheritance collection for my son. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now