What he calls the central Triad of exposures — Fragile, Robustness and Antifragile — has the analogy in the Chinese trinity of Female (Ying), Golden Mean (中庸) and Male (Yang).

The Confucian concept of Golden Mean seeks to avoid extremes and take the safe middle path.

But Taleb’s insight shows us why the Golden Mean gets people into trouble, because by playing safe, the mainstream ignores the uncertainty of Black Swan events that could eventually damage the system as a whole.

Prudence and conservatism through adopting the Golden Mean prevents the practitioner from adopting “antifragile or good high risk-high payoff” strategies that would compensate for the uncertain unknown bad Black Swan events. A Buddhist would immediately recognize the need to build up good deeds to compensate for the bad deeds that may befall oneself.

By not taking risks, Chinese dynasties that adopted Golden Mean strategies became closed societies that eventually imploded when disaster struck. On the other hand, in the run up to the Industrial Revolution, Western societies took large risks with high payoffs, in science, technology and even colonialism.

via Chinese minds move away from conservatism toward antifragility – The China Post.

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating!, January 3, 2013

By Tim Cohn “Reston Runner”

This review is from: Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder (Kindle Edition)

This is a brilliant piece of original work, and, predictably, it seems to infuriate many readers. Why? Mostly, I think, because Taleb’s observations are deadly accurate and he takes a particular delight in ruthlessly pointing out the cluelessness of most academics when it comes to understanding how complicated systems really work — how real systems not only survive adversity but in fact depend on it. Why does any of this matter? Because, whether we like it or not, we exist in a universe of complicated systems — all forms of life, the atmosphere, the oceans, tectonic plates, the solar system — and when we fail to acknowledge this and its implications, we tend to devise “cures” that are worse than the so-called “diseases.” In a grand sense, the future of our society depends on understanding this book’s message; at a smaller level, the book ensures you will have something interesting to talk about at your next cocktail party.

via Amazon.com: Tim Cohn “Reston Runner”‘s review of Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder.

Nevertheless, his claims should be taken seriously and the institutions that receive the most caustic criticism are the media, academia and government. These analyses are among his most interesting and amusing. The government and academia suffer from what he drily calls the ‘Soviet-Harvard’ fallacy: top-down research initiatives resulting in papers that are only read by those wishing to become research directors themselves. Society benefits from its true builders – entrepreneurs and traders – not academics. The numerous failures of businessmen are heroic acts, according to him, ensuring that some succeed where others fail.

via sp!ked review of books | Body-building for nation states.

Taleb has a very important role in a society where it isn’t always easy to tell science from pseudoscience — even at the university level. There is so much dogma passing as “objective truth” in the sciences, and there are so many so-called forecasters who get things wrong over and over again without being held accountable, that a noodge like Taleb can greatly guide us toward a closer understanding of how things work. And “Antifragile’’ does have some useful, original ideas. It’s just that sometimes Taleb seems more interested in being a provocateur than in exercising the rigor he advocates so forcefully.

via Book review: ‘Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder’ by Nassim Nicholas Taleb – Arts – The Boston Globe.