Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder

　　經濟學人、亞馬遜等國際媒體大讚：「塔雷伯旁徵博引大量史料，從現代建築的錯誤到現今醫療體系之危機，甚至探討目前政策議題，本書極富娛樂性，不難看出塔雷伯的高度企圖心。」

　　你可曾想過以下問題：
　　．為何地方自治比中央集權好？
　　．為何提到債務，人們就會皺起眉頭？
　　．為何法律及政策只保護富者，窮者永遠只能受苦？
　　．為何當我們提到有效率之時，往往都最沒效率？
　　．為何在開始工作之時，最好先寫好辭職信？

　　本書將以經濟、社會、心理、個人成長、戰爭、醫療等重要議題，從古追朔至希臘羅馬時代的古人智慧，到紐約布魯克林區的街頭平民思想，引爆下一波全球熱門議題：「Antifragile（抗脆弱性）」。如果這世界孕育出黑天鵝事件，那麼「Antifragile」將成為我們生活的重要藍圖及準則！

　　黑天鵝事件泛指不可抗拒的突發事件，在塔雷伯的這本新書中，將替我們找出因應之道，作者認為唯一能使之抗衡的，仰賴於可以從動盪不安、情況鉅變、壓力和混亂中獲益的特性，而這也就是書名的由來：「Antifragile」。

　　本書以經濟、社會、人文、心理等實際層面來探討此特性的必要，延伸到實際應用。不論對於目前世界經濟的現況，到中央集權及地方自治的優劣，延伸到醫療危機及自我成長，都提出精準且獨到的見解，而本書指出「Antifragile」的特性，不僅僅在社會經濟可對人類帶來重大啟發，更可以運用到地球上的許多自然以及事物規律中，作者旁徵博引大量史料，將讓讀者再度見識到世界一流大師的思想及處世哲學。

　　透過本書除了可一窺塔雷伯的洞燭先機，長達500多頁的豐富內容，信手拈來的生活範例重現，就像反映其書名般，許多紊亂不安並非全是壞事，更重要的是，透過了這些危機，我們應該學到的教訓及因應之道，相信本書將會替黑天鵝事件，找到足以抗衡的全新力量！（文／妙角）

作者簡介

納西姆．尼可拉斯．塔雷伯（Nassim Nicholas Taleb）

　　把最多時間花在遊手好閒上，在全球各地的咖啡館裡沉思冥想。擁有華頓學院（Wharton School）的企管碩士及巴黎大學（University of Paris）的博士學位。做過交易員，現於紐約大學（New York University）任特聘教授。著有《隨機的致富陷阱》（Fooled by Randomness）和《黑天鵝效應》，後者盤踞《紐約時報》（The New York Times）等各大暢銷書榜多年，儼然已成為文化業、社交圈、知識界的一個試金石，《黑天鵝語錄》更是作者的機智警語錄，道出了最精準的預言，塔雷伯無疑已是世上最炙手可熱的思想家。

Antifragile is a standalone book in Nassim Nicholas Taleb''s landmark Incerto series, an investigation of opacity, luck, uncertainty, probability, human error, risk, and decision-making in a world we don''t understand. The other books in the series are Fooled by Randomness, The Black Swan, Skin in the Game, and The Bed of Procrustes.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb, the bestselling author of The Black Swan and one of the foremost thinkers of our time, reveals how to thrive in an uncertain world.

Just as human bones get stronger when subjected to stress and tension, and rumors or riots intensify when someone tries to repress them, many things in life benefit from stress, disorder, volatility, and turmoil. What Taleb has identified and calls "antifragile" is that category of things that not only gain from chaos but need it in order to survive and flourish.

In The Black Swan, Taleb showed us that highly improbable and unpredictable events underlie almost everything about our world. In Antifragile, Taleb stands uncertainty on its head, making it desirable, even necessary, and proposes that things be built in an antifragile manner. The antifragile is beyond the resilient or robust. The resilient resists shocks and stays the same; the antifragile gets better and better.

Furthermore, the antifragile is immune to prediction errors and protected from adverse events. Why is the city-state better than the nation-state, why is debt bad for you, and why is what we call "efficient" not efficient at all? Why do government responses and social policies protect the strong and hurt the weak? Why should you write your resignation letter before even starting on the job? How did the sinking of the Titanic save lives? The book spans innovation by trial and error, life decisions, politics, urban planning, war, personal finance, economic systems, and medicine. And throughout, in addition to the street wisdom of Fat Tony of Brooklyn, the voices and recipes of ancient wisdom, from Roman, Greek, Semitic, and medieval sources, are loud and clear.

Antifragile is a blueprint for living in a Black Swan world.

Erudite, witty, and iconoclastic, Taleb''s message is revolutionary: The antifragile, and only the antifragile, will make it.

Praise for Antifragile

"Ambitious and thought-provoking . . . highly entertaining."--The Economist

"A bold book explaining how and why we should embrace uncertainty, randomness, and error . . . It may just change our lives."--Newsweek