N. N. Taleb's Best Works: Anti-fragility, Skin in the Game, Meta-Rationality

“This is the central illusion in life: that randomness is a risk, that it is a bad thing.” — N. N. Taleb

Why should you study Taleb?

First principles thinking involves a great amount of exposure to what can be grouped as "The Rationalist Community" – this includes psychologists, economists, behavioral scientists, etc. While many of these people's ideas are brilliant, some of them are utterly garbage. Taleb is the necessary antidote. His ideas serve as a strong bulwark against your thinking becoming "too rational" and therefore naive.

"Why did the statistician die while crossing the river? Because he knew that it was on average 4 feet deep."

The above joke reminds of the silliness experts can revel in without realizing that their approach may be faulty. Just think of all the mistakes experts have made in the current COVID-19 disaster!

I consider it my civic duty to include Taleb in this guide for this exact reason – a lot of mainstream experts in the fields of Economics, Psychology, Behavioral Science, and Nutrition are extremely wrong, and Taleb stands as a one-man army calling them out (often publicly on his Twitter!). Incorporating his work into your first-principles thinking stack is absolutely critical.

📚Books

  1. Antifragile
  1. The Black Swan
  1. Fooled by Randomness
  1. Skin in the game

📺Videos

Video summaries of books by Nassim Taleb 👇

✉️Articles

Who Is Nassim Taleb? Antifragile Thinking for a Fat-Tailed World
With the personal motto of "If you see fraud and don't shout fraud, you are a fraud," Nassim Taleb is not afraid of having the uncomfortable conversations. Here we share his most powerful ideas to help you thrive in a random, fragile and chaotic world.
https://fs.blog/intellectual-giants/nassim-taleb/

The Minority rule

The Most Intolerant Wins: The Dictatorship of the Small Minority
(Chapter from Skin in the Game) How Europe will eat Halal - Why you don't have to smoke in the smoking section - Your food choices on the fall of the Saudi king -How to prevent a friend from working too hard -Omar Sharif 's conversion - How to make a market collapse T he best example I know that gives insights into the functioning of a complex system is with the following situation.
https://medium.com/incerto/the-most-intolerant-wins-the-dictatorship-of-the-small-minority-3f1f83ce4e15
Illustration from N. N. Taleb's Best Works: Anti-fragility, Skin in the Game, Meta-Rationality

The Lindy Principle

An Expert Called Lindy
Don't eat their cheesecake- Meta-experts judged by meta-meta-experts- Prostitutes, nonprostitutes, and amateurs - Popper compatibility ( Background. The Black Swan explains the domain-dependence of expertise: why the electrician, dentist, are experts, while the journalist, State Department bureaucrat, and macroeconomist are not .
https://medium.com/incerto/an-expert-called-lindy-fdb30f146eaf
Illustration from N. N. Taleb's Best Works: Anti-fragility, Skin in the Game, Meta-Rationality

Meta-rationality

How to be Rational about Rationality
One of the more technical (and optional) chapters, at the end of Skin of the Game] Rory Sutherland claims that the real function for swimming pools is allowing the middle class to sit around in bathing suits without looking ridiculous. Same with New York restaurants: you think their mission is to feed people, but that's not what they do.
https://medium.com/incerto/how-to-be-rational-about-rationality-432e96dd4d1a
Illustration from N. N. Taleb's Best Works: Anti-fragility, Skin in the Game, Meta-Rationality
Pedophrasty, Bigoteering, and Other Modern Scams
Definition: Argument involving children to prop up a rationalization and make the opponent look like an asshole, as people are defenseless and suspend all skepticism in front of suffering children: nobody has the heart to question the authenticity or source of the reporting. Often done with the aid of pictures.
https://medium.com/incerto/pedophrasty-bigoteering-and-other-modern-scams-c84bd70a29e8
Illustration from N. N. Taleb's Best Works: Anti-fragility, Skin in the Game, Meta-Rationality

Virtue-signaling

The Merchandising of Virtue
(Excerpts from Skin in the Game) Sontag is about Sontag - Virtue is precisely what you don't show I will always remember my encounter with the writer and cultural icon Susan Sontag, largely because it was on the same day that I met the great Benoit Mandelbrot.
https://medium.com/incerto/the-merchandising-of-virtue-b548762658f0
Illustration from N. N. Taleb's Best Works: Anti-fragility, Skin in the Game, Meta-Rationality

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