Wiser Than Yesterday: Book club

Nassim Nicholas Taleb present a blueprint of how to live in a 'Black Swan' world.He begins the book:"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"He spends the rest of the book explaining how to become antifragile. It is a great resource for anyone wanting to have greater control on a random world and to grow stronger as things go wrong.SyncifyThe social audio app - Listen to podcasts and books together with friends.Combat isolation and lonelinessLearn more by sharing ideasSign up at SyncifyApp.com Don't Forget to leave a comment on this episode See podvine.com/privacy-policy for podcast listener privacy info. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb wrote some of his favourite maxims and ways to think in life into a book.This is a great hand book for nuggets of wisdom to ponder upon. Thus ponder we do on some of our favourites.Some examples include* What fools call “wasting time” is most often the best investment.* A man without a heroic bent starts dying at the age of thirty.* The difference between slaves in Roman and Ottoman days and today’s employees is that slaves did not need to flatter their boss.* You are rich if and only if money you refuse tastes better than money you accept.* Modernity: we created youth without heroism, age without wisdom, and life without grandeur.* You can tell how uninteresting a person is by asking him whom he finds interesting.* Procrastination is the soul rebelling against entrapment.* Preoccupation with efficacy is the main obstacle to a poetic, elegant, robust and heroic life.* Those who do not think that employment is systemic slavery are either blind or employed.* They are born, put in a box; they go home to live in a box; they study by ticking boxes; they go to what is called “work” in a box, where they sit in their cubicle box; they drive to the grocery store in a box to buy food in a box; they talk about thinking “outside the box”; and when they die they are put in a box.* A good maxim allows you to have the last word without even starting a conversation. Don't Forget to leave a comment on this episode See podvine.com/privacy-policy for podcast listener privacy info. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets is a book that deals with the fallibility of human knowledge.Nassim Nicholas Taleb explains how we delude ourselves into thinking untrue things due to our love of finding a story or reason when none exists.In the episode, we explore the many examples of human behaviour failing us and the isights we can learn form this book. We discuss how the relates to trading and the economy and the wider aspects of being a more logical human. Don't Forget to leave a comment on this episode See podvine.com/privacy-policy for podcast listener privacy info. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Public speaking can be terrifying. For David Nihill, the idea of standing in front of an audience was scarier than cliff jumping into a thorny pit of spiders and mothers-in-law. Without a parachute or advanced weaponry. This book is a part story and part manual. It follows David's story to become an engaging public speaker and the lessons he learnt along the way. It shows how anyone can become funny and breaks down the steps to get there.It is a highly motivating book for someone who is nervous of approaching the world of public speaking, business presentations and things like a Ted speech. David goes into the science of what makes a great speech and how to reflect and add moments that capture your audiences imagination and increase your confidence.The idea of doing stand up comedy seems like a distant and scary dream to 99% of humans. This book makes it seem quite possible and we expain the lessons learnt and how to approach becoming a funnie speaker. Don't Forget to leave a comment on this episode See podvine.com/privacy-policy for podcast listener privacy info. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This book is challenging. Some people hate. Many people love it.It has been described as, "Disturbingly good" for it's ability to shake the concepts of what you think about your approaches to life. It is regarded as a book you need to read, re-read and then read again.We blindly dive into it and attempt to distill it's wisdom for listeners in a usable manner, whilst not making too big a fools of ourselves.AboutJames P. Carse is a philosopher and author. He published this book in 1986 and it has never lost relevance." There are at least two kinds of games. One could be called finite; the other infinite. A finite game is played for the purpose of winning, an infinite game for the purpose of continuing the play."A simple concept with oodles of insights that go deeper and deeper. Question everything you think you know and dive into a redefinition of how you approach everything. Some nice quotes to get you started:“A finite game is played for the purpose of winning, an infinite game for the purpose of continuing the play.”“There is no finite game unless the players freely choose to play it. No one can play who is forced to play.”“Rules are not valid because the Senate passed them, or because heroes once played by them, or because God pronounced them through Moses or Muhammad.”“There are no rules that require us to obey rules. If there were, there would have to be a rule for those rules, and so on.”“It may appear that the prizes for winning are indispensable, that without them life is meaningless, perhaps even impossible.”“While no one is forced to remain a lawyer or a rodeo performer or a kundalini yogi after being selected for these roles, each role is nonetheless surrounded both by ruled restraints and expectations on the part of others….""We cannot do whatever we please and remain lawyers or yogis— and yet we could not be either unless we pleased.”“The constant attentiveness of finite players to the progress of the competition can lead them to believe that every move they make they must make.” Don't Forget to leave a comment on this episode See podvine.com/privacy-policy for podcast listener privacy info. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This book exposes the gender bias that is in the world around us and affects our daily lives. A brilliant look at the data that shows the facts we need to acknowledge and overcome.Caroline presents a very thourough study into the way the world has been built and how it has been unfair on women. This is a revealing book which was a brilliant read for anyone. As two white guys we really had a lot to learn and enjoyed discussing this book and what we can do to improve things.About the AuthorCaroline Criado Perez is a writer, broadcaster and award-winning feminist campaigner. Her most notable campaigns have included co-founding The Womens Room, getting a woman on Bank of England banknotes, forcing Twitter to revise its procedures for dealing with abuse and successfully campaigning for a statue of suffragist Millicent Fawcett to be erected in Parliament Square. She was the 2013 recipient of the Liberty Human Rights Campaigner of the Year Award, and was awarded an OBE in the Queen s Birthday Honours 2015.AwardsInvisible Women has won the FT & McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award, the Books Are My Bag Readers Choice Award and the Royal Society Science Book Prize. She lives in London. Don't Forget to leave a comment on this episode See podvine.com/privacy-policy for podcast listener privacy info. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Investigative reporter Niel Strauss is the guest on this episode. They discuss 'The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists' and its insights into human psychology and society. The book focuses on becoming a better version of ourselves without using others. The podcast delves into strategies of seduction and the contrasting approaches between men and women in dating. Overall, they discuss the book's entertainment value and practicality.

The hosts explore the intersection of Buddhism and modern psychology, revealing how meditation can lead to personal growth and enhanced well-being. They discuss the evolutionary roots of emotions, emphasizing our primal instincts' influence on decision-making. The concept of non-self is examined, shedding light on identity and mental discipline amid distractions. They also reflect on the subjective nature of perception and its impact on emotional mastery, suggesting that reframing experiences can enhance happiness.

The Black Swan focuses on the extreme impact of rare and unpredictable outlier events — and the human tendency to find simplistic explanations for these events, retrospectively. It was published in 2007, by author and former options trader Nassim Nicholas Taleb. Coronavirus and Pandemics This book is extremely poignant for understanding the Coronavirus pandemic and its effects.In the book, he explains why we would be caught unawares by such an event and why we should build robust systems for events like this. During the discussion on the show, we talk through a lot of the ideas he explains in relation to how it can help with the current situation and build robust systems for future events that we can not predict.IdeaA central idea in Taleb's book is not to attempt to predict Black Swan events but to build robustness to negative events and an ability to exploit positive events. Taleb contends that banks and trading firms are vulnerable to hazardous Black Swan events and are exposed to losses beyond those predicted by their defective financial models.The book asserts that a "Black Swan" event depends on the observer: for example, what may be a Black Swan surprise for a turkey is not a Black Swan surprise for its butcher. Hence the objective should be to "avoid being the turkey", by identifying areas of vulnerability in order to "turn the Black Swans white".AboutTaleb has referred to the book as an essay or a narrative with one single idea: "our blindness with respect to randomness, particularly large deviations." The book moves from literary subjects in the beginning to scientific and mathematical subjects in the later portions.- Part One and the beginning of Part Two delve into psychology.- Taleb addresses science and business in the latter half of Part Two and Part Three.- Part Four contains advice on how to approach the world in the face of uncertainty and still enjoy life.The book has been described by The Sunday Times as one of the twelve most influential books since World War II. As of 2019, it has been cited approximately 10,000 times, 9,000 of which are for the English-language edition (we can expect a lot more after the Coronavirus event). The book spent 36 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller list;17 as hardcover and 19 weeks as paperback. It was published in 32 languages. Don't Forget to leave a comment on this episode See podvine.com/privacy-policy for podcast listener privacy info. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

About the BookThe aim of "Elephant in the Brain" is to confront our hidden motives directly — to track down the darker, unexamined corners of our psyches and blast them with floodlights. Then, once our minds are more clearly visible, we can work to better understand human nature: Why do people laugh? Why are artists sexy? Why do we brag about travel? Why do we prefer to speak rather than listen?Human beings are primates, and primates are political animals. Our brains are therefore designed not just to hunt and gather, but also to get ahead socially, often by devious means.But while we may be self-interested schemers, we benefit by pretending otherwise. The less we know about our own ugly motives, the better. And thus we don’t like to talk — or even think — about the extent of our selfishness. This is “the elephant in the brain,” an introspective blind spot that makes it hard to think clearly about ourselves and the explanations for our behavior.What We GiveA summary of the key ways human beings lie to themselves and others without even realising. There are so many hidden ways we conceal the truth to protect and advance ourselves. But sometimes to our detriment.We work out the useful take-home point and consider the knowledge that is perhaps dangerous. Don't Forget to leave a comment on this episode See podvine.com/privacy-policy for podcast listener privacy info. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.