For comments: It takes time for things to break…

For comments:
It takes time for things to break, but they eventually break, & there should be no rush although our impulse is to think that they will collapse immediately after we become aware of the problem. Give things time… 3 to 8 years in today’s complex system. By definition the fragile cannot be selfsustaining as the probability of a collapse increases with time.

We had to wait 4 years for Fannie Mae to go bust (after detection of their fragility), but it did go bust; 5 years for Syria to blow up, but it did; bankers are losing power 5 years after the crisis. We thought in 2009 that the econ establishment would be discredited and… it is starting to happen about 5 years later. We thought in 2010 that the Greeks would be in the streets and here they are…

So what’s on the list (of the unsustainably fragile)? For me, Saudi Arabia, Elsevier/Wiley (academic publishing will be Uberized), the Fed’s monopoly, Monsanto, bureaucrats in Europe w/lifetime employment, Oligarchs, etc.Please be specific, avoid the vague and the general.

via For comments: It takes time for things… – Nassim Nicholas Taleb.

How to Read Antifragile | Patrick Geoghegan

It is important to read anti-fragile twice.

Mostly, because it is all about the same thing. It is not a sequence, development or progression. The author defines his idea in the first section, but it only emerges out of repeated oscillations between more theoretical and technical descriptions, and real-world examples. Here’s a model I’ve used before to show specificity:

Specificity

It is self referential.

The book does not “move-on”, or develop an idea into something new. It only adds specificity. In doing so, it uses previous conclusions as starting points. It describes an example to identify a concept, then applies that concept to another example from which to draw a further point. Be ready to go back and forth, or

Write your own glossary.

 

via How to Read Antifragile | Patrick Geoghegan.
HatTip to Dave Lull

In other words you cannot benefit from a set of laws if you aim is to destroy the system built on these laws.

NNT very clearly defining his views on terrorism and how to handle it on Twitter this last week.

In other words you cannot benefit from a set of laws if you aim is to destroy the system built on these laws.

via Nassim NicholنTaleb on Twitter: “In other words you cannot benefit from a set of laws if you aim is to destroy the system built on these laws.”.