By: Nicole Richardson on October 27, 2022
Dr. Hassim Taleb, a Lebanese-American, brings his unique and vastly varied background, education and experience to manifest in his writings. Taleb reveals he is a master map layerer utilizing math, statistics, science, philosophy, and epistemology to invite the reader into fresh spaces to consider the nature of systems, institutions and humans in his book Antifragile:…
By: Henry Gwani on October 27, 2022
Moving beyond fragility and resilience, Nassim Nicholas Taleb draws our attention to a new word to the English language: antifragility. He defines this as the ability to benefit, thrive or grow when exposed to “shocks … volatility, randomness, disorder, … stressors … risk, and uncertainty[1].” Unimaginable as this may seem, the author notes that antifragility…
By: Roy Gruber on October 27, 2022
Antifragile by Nassim Nicholas Taleb proved to be a challenging read for me. Subtitled “things that gain from disorder,” this philosophy book dealing with information theory caused me to stop reading and start watching some explanatory videos about the book. One video, in particular, influenced my post, and I need to acknowledge the source that…
By: Troy Rappold on October 27, 2022
Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s 2012 book, “Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder.” Asks how do we deal with the dangers posed by increasing uncertainty and volatility in a world that has grown ever more interdependent and complex. How can we not just withstand it, but profit from it? He goes to great length to define his…
By: Kayli Hillebrand on October 26, 2022
Nassim Taleb’s Antifragile: Things that Gain from Disorder is precisely what I would picture if I were asked to describe a philosophical and informational theory book. Taleb, a Lebanese-American statistician and philosopher, dives deep into the necessity of stressors as a pathway towards growth. While I do feel the book was a bit long winded…
By: Michael Simmons on October 26, 2022
Nassim Taleb centers his book Antifragile: Things that Gain from Disorder around the base concept that individuals and systems must pursue something beyond resiliency in the face of adversity. He proposes that we must become antifragile, and that there are three modes which all forms can take: fragile, robust, anti-fragile. Taleb writes, “[…] the fragile…
By: Eric Basye on October 26, 2022
Taleb is a Lebanese American statistician, trader, and analyst who also became a well-known author. One book, the Black Swan, came out in 2007 and was touted as one of the most influential books since WWII.[1] I found it helpful to have a rudimentary understanding of The Black Swan as the prologue of Antifragile suggests…
By: Andy Hale on October 26, 2022
“Who wants to go through pain in order to come out stronger on the other side?” I can almost hear my high school coaches screaming it in my ear as they pushed us to train harder, run faster, and push ourselves further. While I don’t endorse the toxic masculinity that typically comes with male-driven athletics,…
By: Denise Johnson on October 21, 2022
I moved into my place in Sequim nearly a year ago, and with moving comes the seemingly endless unpacking. For me, every box was an adventure of new or a rediscovery of a different life. Some boxes revealed my life before I had a passport, while others were filled with treasures from previous generations. One…
By: Henry Gwani on October 20, 2022
Biblical philosophers like the Lord Jesus and Paul occasionally spoke about mysteries. On one occasion, when asked why He spoke a lot in parables, Jesus explained that the ability to understand the mysteries of the kingdom has been given only to His followers. In other words, if He did not illustrate spiritual realities with parables,…
By: Jonathan Lee on October 20, 2022
Michael Polanyi was a Hungarian-British chemist and philosopher who passed away in 1976. This week’s reading, The Tacit Dimension, is one of the many books he authored. This book was “first published in 1966, and it is based on his Terry Lectures delivered four years earlier, at Yale University”[1] to explain his concepts and insights…
By: Roy Gruber on October 20, 2022
The Tacit Dimension by Michael Polanyi contains a clear and concise premise, namely, “we can know more than we can tell.”[1] The book primarily addresses knowledge management, more specifically, tacit knowledge. Polanyi, a Hungarian-British author, and a professor worked in physical chemistry, economics, and philosophy. The book is divided into three sections, containing his Terry…
By: Nicole Richardson on October 20, 2022
We were traversing the Nambiti Big 5 Private Reserve in the South African bush on our evening safari by way of Land Cruiser. It was just after sunset when our field guide, Peter, came to a stop. He jumped out of the auto and walked over to a shrub. The 10 of us in the…
By: Troy Rappold on October 20, 2022
In Michael Polanyi’s thin yet dense philosophic work “The Tacit Dimension,” he discusses human knowledge, the scientific method, and how we discover objective truth. Let’s start with the definition of tacit: “understood or implied without being stated.” This is the guiding principle for his book and he goes on to argue that, “we can know…
By: Elmarie Parker on October 20, 2022
Michael Polanyi, a Hungarian-British chemist and informal philosopher, invites the reader to plumb the depths of how knowing and the related issue of the process and structure of thought happens in our minds and bodies. His book, “The Tacit Dimension,” relays his three-part lecture in three chapters (with some modifications) given in 1962 at Yale…
By: Kayli Hillebrand on October 19, 2022
Michael Polanyi, a scientist and philosopher of Hungarian-British descent, facilitates an interesting discussion in The Tacit Dimension. At the core of this philosophical work is the “the fact that we can know more than we can tell.”[1] While the example in use is the ability to know a person’s face from a crowd without the…
By: Andy Hale on October 19, 2022
Sometimes minuscule resources have the most significant impact. The Enchiridion of Epictetus is only 34 pages long but continues to shape our understanding of Stoic philosophy. Thomas Paine’s Common Sense is only a 47-page pamphlet but shaped the concept of American liberty. Luther’s world-altering 95 Thesis can be read in less than 30 minutes. Add to this list Michael Polanyi’s…
By: Eric Basye on October 19, 2022
One author described The Tacit Dimension as a book that is “a must-read one in the field of knowledge management.”[1] He describes tacit knowledge as the process of identifying a person by their features in a large group of people and references a second example of a pianist playing the piano. With uncanny ability, a…
By: Jonathan Lee on October 14, 2022
Tod Bolsinger, the author of Tempered Resilience, has been researching and teaching leadership over the years as he served as a senior pastor of San Clemente Presbyterian Church and as a professor at Fuller Seminary. Tod introduces his book with a question that he has been asking over the years: ‘Can I survive it?’ In…
By: Nicole Richardson on October 14, 2022
Whether it is Alexander Solzhenitsyn, N.S. Lyons, or Tod Bolsinger, the clarion call to the always burgeoning change leaders face is to PIVOT! PIVOT! It is not that the presence of change is a new dynamic in this world. In Tempered Resilience: How Leaders are Formed in the Crucible of Change, professor of leadership formation…
