> Taleb introduces the book as follows: "Some things benefit from shocks; they thrive and grow when exposed to volatility, randomness, disorder, and stressors and love adventure, risk, and uncertainty. Yet, in spite of the ubiquity of the phenomenon, there is no word for the exact opposite of fragile. Let us call it antifragile. Antifragility is beyond resilience or robustness. The resilient resists shocks and stays the same; the antifragile gets better". Hormesis is an example of mild antifragility, where the stressor is a poisonous substance and the antifragile becomes better overall from a small dose of the stressor. This is different from robustness or resilience in that the Antifragile system improves with, not withstands, stressors, where the stressors are neither too large or small. The larger point, according to Taleb, is that depriving systems of vital stressors is not necessarily a good thing and can be downright harmful.
Couldn't agree more. 99% of the time I feel blocked, frustrated, etc - I pick it up and read (almost at random) and it also helps reset mindset. This in particular is one of my favorite passages:
"Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present."
My hardback copy of Anathem self destructed through continual re-reading of favourite parts. However, I now also have it on Audible so I can listen to it on my jeejah... ;-)
I've read them all multiple times, and go back to them again and again. As with you, I still occasionally spot new things, or get taken afresh by a turn-of-phrase. I still laugh out loud at some points.
Pratchett is a very special author! Though not my absolute favourite, he does manage to combine brilliant humour with an incredibly observant social satire and deep, likeable characters.
Not a single book, but The Dresden Files series is really good. The first few books are a little on the weak side, but the author gets better and better and the world building is very deep. There's gotta be a zillion characters interacting to a point where it feels real. Good arc going on too. It's a wizard detective series set in modern times.
Because Shakespeare was always presented as something you should read because it's good for you, not because you enjoy it when I was in high school, I don't think I'll ever be able to enjoy it.
I got into it relatively recently, way after high school. I think I got my start mostly with Victorians like Christina Rosetti, maybe some of the Romantics. Far away enough in time to be interestingly different, but close enough that the language is comprehensible. And prior to all that modernist experimentation which moved poetry away from poetry as I understand it. (I don't denigrate that stuff but it isn't a good entry point.)
Shakespeare's sonnets are a bit more accessible than his plays insofar as each one is a small, manageable, bite-sized chunk. Nonetheless, they do require fairly slow, relaxed attention in an edition with good notes to get the most out of them. (When I was reading them, I would read a couple very slowly over breakfast every day. I miss being able to do that!)
I always enjoyed writing poetry myself, but I only discovered I liked reading it when I read some of the Romantics. Their themes and style resonated with me, so I read more of them and started to get a taste for it.
The more I learnt to appreciate poetry, the more I found that Romantics weren't the only good poets, so I expanded to the Realists, the Metaphysical poets, the fin-de-siecle, etc. And, yes, Shakespeare too ;-) (He takes practice to read and you can't read a lot of him in one sitting, but he really deserves his reputation as an amazing author and poet.)
May I suggest Robert Frost? He's fanatical about rigorously adhering to meter, cunningly so.. when you go back and count the iambs it's striking how few deviate. The way he encodes his lyricism is subtle and soothing, like a precise, subaudible metronome.
If this appeals to you, then dip into Shakespeare's sonnets, and let yourself feel the rhythm as you read. It's so bloody good.
I have a fairly extensive and varied poetical library that I regularly go back to for all kinds of reasons. TS Eliot is probably my favourite, you can read him every week for a year without fully understanding him, but every time you understand him just a little bit better and every time you glory anew in his superb control of imagery and language.
The Bible, Hobbit, LOTR series, Narnia, Catcher in the Rye, 1984, Papa Hemingway, these are all books that I’ve had to buy multiple times because they fall apart over the years. Never realized until just now how many comfort books I have...
I was wondering how comforting reading The Bible (as a cultural catholic) could be, so I dipped in to the first book which came to mind:
---
Satan Takes Job's Property and Children
13 Now there was a day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house, 14 and there came a messenger to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them, 15 and the Sabeans fell upon them and took them and struck down the servants[c] with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” 16 While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, “The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” 17 While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, “The Chaldeans formed three groups and made a raid on the camels and took them and struck down the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” 18 While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house, 19 and behold, a great wind came across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young people, and they are dead, and I alone have escaped to tell you.”
20 Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. 21 And he said, “Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”
22 In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.
---
I'm not sure how that made me feel, but I bet this is more effective if you pick specific passages you like.
Yeah, you chose one of the absolute worst passages for that ;-)
I read the Bible every day, a habit that is very important to me. But I don't just "pick specific passages I like", I take a book and read it through sequentially, then move on to the next. I find much of it intensely practical and applicable to my life; it challenges, comforts and teaches me. Of course, some parts are of a more historical interest, yet others (like the one you quote) can be really tough to make sense of. But I believe that the Bible is one of the main ways in which God communicates with people, so I want to read and think about all of it.
I suggest starting at the beginning, Genesis chapter 1, and really dig into just that 1 chapter for a while and try to figure out what it's really about. Remember that it was written to a different culture, a different time, in a different language, and not at all for the purposes that a lot of modern readers want.
I would actually recommend starting with the New Testament, especially the gospels. Genesis is fascinating, but you need a lot of background to really understand its implications and intentions. The gospels are much more approachable (and relevant).
I used to think so, too, but I’ve been listening to the Bible Project podcasts and realized that the entire Bible, including the NT, is very Jewish, not modern or Greek at all, and in some ways the NT is actually more confusing because it can appear familiar when it really isn’t.
But if someone could only read a small part of the Bible, no doubt I’d send them to the Gospels.
94 comments
[ 1.5 ms ] story [ 161 ms ] threadWell actually, I couldn't decide between "I-Robot" and "The rest of the robots", but luckily there's a compendium with them both in.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antifragile
It is an interesting observation.
I think I would say Consider Phlebas. Flamboyant space opera.
Threads and A Colder War both belong to this category for me.
About the beginning of something very similar to java.
Hope you enjoy it.
"Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present."
Then it was the 2 memoirs by Patrick Leigh Fermor: "A Time of Gifts" and "Between the Woods and the Water".
Lately it's the Aubrey-Maturin by Patrick O'Brian series which I have re-read multiple times.
BTW, if you like Pratchett, do you know the Discworld MUD? (http://discworld.starturtle.net/lpc/)
I found the book after I saw the film, and it was a revelation that even the action sequences are better in the book.
Because Shakespeare was always presented as something you should read because it's good for you, not because you enjoy it when I was in high school, I don't think I'll ever be able to enjoy it.
Ironically I found that I really like A Midsummer Night's Dream by watching a movie version with my son who was performing in it at school.
Shakespeare's sonnets are a bit more accessible than his plays insofar as each one is a small, manageable, bite-sized chunk. Nonetheless, they do require fairly slow, relaxed attention in an edition with good notes to get the most out of them. (When I was reading them, I would read a couple very slowly over breakfast every day. I miss being able to do that!)
The more I learnt to appreciate poetry, the more I found that Romantics weren't the only good poets, so I expanded to the Realists, the Metaphysical poets, the fin-de-siecle, etc. And, yes, Shakespeare too ;-) (He takes practice to read and you can't read a lot of him in one sitting, but he really deserves his reputation as an amazing author and poet.)
If this appeals to you, then dip into Shakespeare's sonnets, and let yourself feel the rhythm as you read. It's so bloody good.
I have a fairly extensive and varied poetical library that I regularly go back to for all kinds of reasons. TS Eliot is probably my favourite, you can read him every week for a year without fully understanding him, but every time you understand him just a little bit better and every time you glory anew in his superb control of imagery and language.
I think I've read it 4 times the last 7 years, which may not be that often, but it definitely has a special place in my heart.
---
Satan Takes Job's Property and Children
13 Now there was a day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house, 14 and there came a messenger to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys feeding beside them, 15 and the Sabeans fell upon them and took them and struck down the servants[c] with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” 16 While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, “The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants and consumed them, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” 17 While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, “The Chaldeans formed three groups and made a raid on the camels and took them and struck down the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” 18 While he was yet speaking, there came another and said, “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother's house, 19 and behold, a great wind came across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young people, and they are dead, and I alone have escaped to tell you.”
20 Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. 21 And he said, “Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”
22 In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.
---
I'm not sure how that made me feel, but I bet this is more effective if you pick specific passages you like.
I read the Bible every day, a habit that is very important to me. But I don't just "pick specific passages I like", I take a book and read it through sequentially, then move on to the next. I find much of it intensely practical and applicable to my life; it challenges, comforts and teaches me. Of course, some parts are of a more historical interest, yet others (like the one you quote) can be really tough to make sense of. But I believe that the Bible is one of the main ways in which God communicates with people, so I want to read and think about all of it.
But if someone could only read a small part of the Bible, no doubt I’d send them to the Gospels.