Category Archives: Antifragile

ImageNations: Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Funny enough, when these economic collapse occur, after the intervention, those who prescribed the cure that led to the doom, those whom Nassim refers to as Fragilistas and who confuse what they do not know with its non-existence (the absence of evidence with evidence of absence), in the full glow of their epistemic arrogance those who offer the solutions. In spite of the fact that they proffer further complicated interventions they do not understand, they also do not have their skin in the game and so suffer no consequences of their actions. If they are banksters, society will take the negative fallouts; if they are politicians, they will move into other lucrative positions.

However, this is not to say that by allowing mediocristan variability or randomness you automatically eliminate Black Swans. Rather, consistent exposure to mediocristan variability builds antifragility within a system. A shock to a system or body prepares the body to expect and tolerate another shock bigger than previous: information transmission from the genes to the tissues to the organs to the organism to the community.

via ImageNations: 16. Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder by Nassim Nicholas Taleb.

“Antifragilität” von Nassim Taleb: Größenwahnsinnig und toll – Wirtschaft – Süddeutsche.de

Der Maniker, um den es geht, heißt Nassim Nicholas Taleb, und sein Opus Magnum mit dem Titel “Antifragilität” ist in diesen Tagen auf Deutsch erschienen. Es ist, ganz unbescheiden, eine Theorie von allem. Und doch keine Weltformel, weil die Welt ja unverständlich ist und daher auch Nassim Taleb nur weiß, dass er nichts weiß – das weiß er seiner Meinung nach allerdings deutlich besser als alle anderen.

Wie kommt einer dazu, ein derart größenwahnsinniges – und, das sei hier schon mal gesagt – auch irgendwie großartiges Buch zu schreiben? 688 Seiten! Plus weitere Info auf fooledbyrandomness.com! Inklusive frei erfundener “sokratischer” Dialoge mit Fat Tony aus Brooklyn. Und dann dieser obskure Titel: “Antifragilität” – ein Irrsinn.

via “Antifragilität” von Nassim Taleb: Größenwahnsinnig und toll – Wirtschaft – Süddeutsche.de.

Antifragile Systems – IEEE Spectrum

For the first half of the last century, multipath phenomena were harmful. In radio frequency transmission they caused signal fading as different paths became variously additive or destructive. In wire-line transmission there were similar effects due to the nonuniform delay of signal frequency components, resulting in intersymbol interference and degraded speeds.
These multipath impairments were eventually alleviated through diversity and adaptive signal processing. Still, I think of these adaptive systems as robust, rather than truly antifragile. Perhaps, though, we crossed the line to antifragile with the advent of multiple-input/multiple-output MIMO systems, in which we deliberately send multiple copies of the signal from different antennas, hoping there will be multipath phenomena that with processing can be used to enhance system performance. MIMO [PDF] is now commonly used in IEEE 802.11n (Wi-Fi), and elsewhere.

via Antifragile Systems – IEEE Spectrum.

Sorry Nassim Taleb, Technology Actually Does Matter – Forbes

Reader, Jon, who sent this along, comments, “…a great example of someone that just does not get NNT’s message… not malicious simply misguided”. Agreed!

Nassim Taleb, in his new book Antifragile, is so derisive of technology that he refers to tech enthusiasm as a condition – “Neomania” – and argues that much of the progress we get excited about isn’t really progress at all.

He gleefully points out that we continue to wear shoes, eat with silverware, drink wine, beer and coffee and do many other things that have been around for thousands of years and notes that while these old technologies has been tested by time, new technology is prone to failure.

via Sorry Nassim Taleb, Technology Actually Does Matter – Forbes.

Book Review: Antifragile: How to Live in a World We Don’t Understand | LSE Review of Books

The key to the antifragile mentality is what Taleb calls ‘optionality’, namely, the use of degrees of freedom as a proxy for knowledge. In other words, if you do not know what will happen, make sure you have every option covered. Taleb, who appears to enjoy a ‘second life’ existence as a gangster, speaks in terms of having ‘skin in the game’. In gambling circles, it is called ‘spread betting’. In any case, it is psychologically much more difficult than it seems because so much of our sense of reality’s stability rests on the future continuing the past being a ‘sure bet’. Why then waste time and money on outliers? But Taleb counsels that it is better to run slightly behind the pack most of the time by devoting a small but significant portion of your resources to outliers, because when one of them hits, the rewards will more than make up for the lower return that you had been receiving to date.

via Book Review: Antifragile: How to Live in a World We Don’t Understand | LSE Review of Books.