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Harvesting Luck: Nassim Taleb on Concept of Antifragile

Photo of Nassim Taleb

During a recent visit to the Stanford DFJ Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Seminar, researcher Nassim Taleb, author of the wildly popular book The Black Swan, shared how individuals and organizations can capture luck, by design, even in a world full of randomness and volatility.

Taleb explores this concept in his latest book, Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder. According to Taleb, systems that thrive and flourish in unpredictable conditions are what he calls “antifragile.” Leaders in industry and government should re-think their approach to creating policy, says Taleb, as antifragile systems, built to respond positively to disruption, can maximize innovation and truly take advantage of “black swan events.”

In the lecture, Taleb weaves together his thoughts on the nature of fragility in industry and governmental policy with personal stories of how he came to develop the concept of “antifragility,” an approach influenced by his 20 years of experience as a financial trader. Taleb also discusses the value of intellingent trial and error and shares illuminating moments from human history when “antifragile” design worked benefit society.

Watch the lecture on Stanford University’s Entrepreneurship Corner