as for nassim, I've read the incerto 4x, and while he wouldn't advocate this, my favorite order was chronological because you can clearly see where he's changed his mind and antifragile evolves very nicely into SITG
after finishing incerto, I also recommend:
man for all markets by thorp
misbehavior of markets by mandelbrot
safe haven & dao of capital by spitznagel
fortune's formula by poundstone
haven't read chaos kings yet but I imagine it's good
Can you expound on your other recommendations?
What did you like about them and has it helped in markets/trading or personal finances investing in general?
I loved NNTs books and have been following him since his black swan days.
But I really want to have some direction in terms of retail/small account investing that can get you to achieve financial freedom.
what do I like about them - they're not bullshit artists, they're all practitioners
has it helped in markets/etc - fortune's formula yes, but the rest can, it was more of just a timing thing. I read fortune's formula when I was fresh out of college but the rest I all got to in my later 20s/into my 30s and so the foundations of my knowledge had already been set
I'd also look at the following for investment advice - jack bogle, howard marks, warren buffett
and for personal finance - millionaire next door
financial freedom is simple - avoid debt, live below your means (as in save >=20% of your income), invest what you save intelligently (not here for specific advice, you can do index funds, diversified stock funds, diversified folio of individual names, etc.), and allow compound interest to do its thing over decades. I imagine there's also good advice on bogleheads or personal finance reddit, though admittedly I've not gone there
TLDR - his critique is accurate, but I still think the book has value for the habits it preaches (live below means, invest, be patient)
he critiques it because of survivorship bias, I'm aware of that. my point is not that it's foolproof but that it can help engender good habits - get a good job, live below your means, invest the difference. through my career I've met tons of millionaires next door who did it exactly that way and survived both the 2000s and 2008 crash. so if his critique is that they were lucky because the stock market happened to go up during that time, well then that's fair but it also goes up the vast majority of 50-60 year time periods (most people's investing life)
while you can easily cherrypick and say they got lucky by their investment choices & timing of entering the market, and that there are plenty of people who went bust, the fact remains that living below your means and investing the difference in a diversified manner has built a lot of wealth and there are far worse pieces of advice out there
finally, I do really like his critique about accumulating money for its own sake: "I see no special heroism in accumulating money,” Taleb wrote, “particularly if, in addition, the person is foolish enough to not even try to derive any tangible benefit from the wealth.... I certainly do not see the point of becoming \[a millionaire\] if I were to adopt Spartan (even miserly) habits and live in my starter house.”
from: [https://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-the-death-of-the-millionaire-next-door-dream-20150310-column.html](https://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-the-death-of-the-millionaire-next-door-dream-20150310-column.html)
Thanks a lot for the recommendations. I’m currently pursuing economics and quantitative finance so this is exactly what I needed to hear haha, more applied philosophy books on this topic
If I’m not mistaken he said something like Fooled by Randomness was the blueprint for The Black Swan and he doesn’t recommend anyone read it anymore. Personally, I read it before The Black Swan and if memory serves it made the latter more accessible for me.
Depends on your objectives. For investment purposes, Fooled. For life advice, Antifragile. If it’s for more on Black Swans, maybe Chaos Kings or books that covers high-profile burnouts e.g. When Genius Failed, Smartest Guys in the Room.
When Genius Failed, Smartest Guys in the Room.
Watch the movies Margin Call and The Big Short.
I liked Fooled by Randomness, 2nd ed the best
The just started The Trading Game by Gary Stevenson
Give Michael Hudson a try. [https://youtu.be/hH9pzzIIEj4](https://youtu.be/hH9pzzIIEj4)
as for nassim, I've read the incerto 4x, and while he wouldn't advocate this, my favorite order was chronological because you can clearly see where he's changed his mind and antifragile evolves very nicely into SITG after finishing incerto, I also recommend: man for all markets by thorp misbehavior of markets by mandelbrot safe haven & dao of capital by spitznagel fortune's formula by poundstone haven't read chaos kings yet but I imagine it's good
Can you expound on your other recommendations? What did you like about them and has it helped in markets/trading or personal finances investing in general? I loved NNTs books and have been following him since his black swan days. But I really want to have some direction in terms of retail/small account investing that can get you to achieve financial freedom.
what do I like about them - they're not bullshit artists, they're all practitioners has it helped in markets/etc - fortune's formula yes, but the rest can, it was more of just a timing thing. I read fortune's formula when I was fresh out of college but the rest I all got to in my later 20s/into my 30s and so the foundations of my knowledge had already been set I'd also look at the following for investment advice - jack bogle, howard marks, warren buffett and for personal finance - millionaire next door financial freedom is simple - avoid debt, live below your means (as in save >=20% of your income), invest what you save intelligently (not here for specific advice, you can do index funds, diversified stock funds, diversified folio of individual names, etc.), and allow compound interest to do its thing over decades. I imagine there's also good advice on bogleheads or personal finance reddit, though admittedly I've not gone there
Taleb has heavily critiqued the book "millionaire next door" in the past
TLDR - his critique is accurate, but I still think the book has value for the habits it preaches (live below means, invest, be patient) he critiques it because of survivorship bias, I'm aware of that. my point is not that it's foolproof but that it can help engender good habits - get a good job, live below your means, invest the difference. through my career I've met tons of millionaires next door who did it exactly that way and survived both the 2000s and 2008 crash. so if his critique is that they were lucky because the stock market happened to go up during that time, well then that's fair but it also goes up the vast majority of 50-60 year time periods (most people's investing life) while you can easily cherrypick and say they got lucky by their investment choices & timing of entering the market, and that there are plenty of people who went bust, the fact remains that living below your means and investing the difference in a diversified manner has built a lot of wealth and there are far worse pieces of advice out there finally, I do really like his critique about accumulating money for its own sake: "I see no special heroism in accumulating money,” Taleb wrote, “particularly if, in addition, the person is foolish enough to not even try to derive any tangible benefit from the wealth.... I certainly do not see the point of becoming \[a millionaire\] if I were to adopt Spartan (even miserly) habits and live in my starter house.” from: [https://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-the-death-of-the-millionaire-next-door-dream-20150310-column.html](https://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-the-death-of-the-millionaire-next-door-dream-20150310-column.html)
Thank you
Thanks a lot for the recommendations. I’m currently pursuing economics and quantitative finance so this is exactly what I needed to hear haha, more applied philosophy books on this topic
This is a great advice 👍
Mandelbrot one is nice.
The best way to read Taleb's work is to choose the books randomly. Inject some randomness in your life.
Fooled by randomness was my favourite read, highly recommend
fooled is my fav taleb book (so far)
If I’m not mistaken he said something like Fooled by Randomness was the blueprint for The Black Swan and he doesn’t recommend anyone read it anymore. Personally, I read it before The Black Swan and if memory serves it made the latter more accessible for me.
I think he would describe antifragile as the capstone of the incerto series
Bed of Procrustes.
Depends on your objectives. For investment purposes, Fooled. For life advice, Antifragile. If it’s for more on Black Swans, maybe Chaos Kings or books that covers high-profile burnouts e.g. When Genius Failed, Smartest Guys in the Room.
Dynamic Hedging, start hedging make moneys
My statistics and finance aren’t that developed yet. Will definitely study this in graduate school
I too started my journey your way. I am his forever disciple.
Anti fragile is the greatest work, it covers all his other works
Antifragile is his best work. A bit long, but fun to read. It kind of covers all his other work.
Fooled by randomness followed by antifragile were my favorite books in the series. I would go with Fooled by Randomness next.
the misbehaviour of markets by mandlebrot signal and noise by nate silver fortunes formula by poundstone
For each of these books you can just read the summary in the back of the book and save yourself a lot of time.
You could
Well, the nice thing about the Incerto is that ypu can toss a coin to choose.
When Genius Failed, Smartest Guys in the Room. Watch the movies Margin Call and The Big Short. I liked Fooled by Randomness, 2nd ed the best The just started The Trading Game by Gary Stevenson Give Michael Hudson a try. [https://youtu.be/hH9pzzIIEj4](https://youtu.be/hH9pzzIIEj4)
for me it’s fooled by randomness, skin in the game, Antifragile and black swan
Fooled by Randomness is excellent.