Stevie’s Reviews > Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder > Status Update

So a sucker problem would make us tend to believe that mathematics led to these beautiful objects, with exceptions here and there such as pyramids , as these preceded the more formal mathematics we had after Euclid & other Greek theorists. Some facts: architects (or what were then called Masters of Works) relied on heuristics... and almost nobody knew any mathematics...

The barbell technique remedies the the problem that risks of rare events are incomputable and fragile to estimation error... For antifragility is the combination of aggressiveness plus paranoia.

“If you put 90% of your funds in boring cash (assuming you are protected from inflation) or something called a “numeraire repository of value”, & 10% in very risky, maximally risky, securities, you cannot possibly lose more than than 10%, while you are exposed to massive upside. Someone with 100% in so-called medium risk securities has a risk of total ruin from miscomputation of risks”-On Seneca’s Barbell

They discovered that famine was more severe in areas with higher food production in the period before the famine began, meaning that it was govt policy of food distribution that was behind much of the problem, owing to the inflexibility of the procurement system. And indeed, a larger than expected share of famine over the past century has occurred in economies with central planning.

“It’s much easier to sell “Look what I did for you” than “Look what I avoided for you.” Of course a system based on performance exacerbates the problem...The true hero in the Black Swan world is someone who prevents a calamity and naturally because the calamity did not take place, does not get recognition.”

On Switzerland-“It is not true that the Swiss don’t have a govt. What they don’t have is a large central govt or what the discourse describes as “the govt” - what governs them is entirely bottom up, municipal of sorts- near sovereign mini states united in a confederation... this bottom up form of dictatorship provides protection against the romanticism of utopias.”- The last remaining city state.

Someone who did not find something is providing others with the best knowledge. He is central part of the process...In order to progress, modern society should be treating ruined entrepreneurs in the same way we honor dead soldiers, perhaps not with as much honor, but using exactly the same logic. There is no such thing as a failed soldier, dead or alive likewise, there is no such thing as a failed entrepreneur.

When you don’t have debt you don’t care about your reputation in economic circles- and somehow it is only when you don’t care about your reputation that you tend to have a good one. Just as in matters of seduction, people lend the most to those who need them the least.

When you don’t have debt you don’t care about your reputation in economic circles- and somehow it is only when you don’t care about your reputation that you tend to have a good one. Just as in matters of seduction, people lend the most to those who need them the least.

The world as a whole has never been richer, & it has never been more heavily in debt, living off borrowed money. The record shows that, for society, the richer we become, the harder it gets to live within our means. Abundance is harder for us to handle than scarcity.