Saturday 23 March 2013

Taleb, Spitznagel, Prabai and...Buckminster Fuller?



Still on the Antifragile ideas again! 

Although I've seen nearly all of Taleb's talks on Youtube I've just found one that's on Bloomberg only. His latest interview which I found is here: 
http://www.gurufocus.com/news/209020/nassim-taleb--my-fear-of-bonds-is-forcing-me-to-buy-stocks

On another note, an ex-colleague once recommended I also check out Mark Spitznagel of the hedge fund Universa Investment LP. Spitznagel and Taleb has often worked together and share many similar views. Spitznagel also writes articles semi-regularly, some of which can be found here:



Ok, besides the recent 'long volatility' option trader / investors I've been focusing on recently I decided to revisit a Mohnish Prabai value investing interview. I have to say the Prabai interview is very worthwhile and highly recommended. In it he speaks about 'cloning' success! The interview can found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBXRNH9VfhA

On a final note, Nassim often speaks about certain environments requiring 'constant stressors' to remain healthy (antifragile). He often uses example of the economy and the human body. For example, if you were to put a human into outer space or a sterile environment without any stress - no stress from gravity or bacteria - then if they were to return back to a normal city life their body would suffer. Imagine someone stepping back into a New York subway immediately after years living in a sterile environment!

This idea of requiring constant stress reminds me of Buckminster Fuller's concepts of tensegrity: constant tension, discontinuous compression. This concept can be seen in building resilient structures and includes the structure of the human body. See an short example here: http://www.biotensegrity.com/continuous_tension_discontinuous_compression.php

For those with an interest in investing, health, architecture I hope you enjoyed this post. Take care


No comments:

Post a Comment