February 2019 – Antifragility

Ján Košturiak, a member of the Red Button network, talks about the book.

how to benefit from randomness, uncertainty and chaos

Why is a city-state better than a national state? Why should you have your resignation letter ready before starting a new job? And why did the sinking of the Titanic mean more of a rescue than a loss of human lives? Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s latest book, as usual for the author, poses a series of provocative questions, but above all reaches conclusions that can genuinely change our lives.
Building on the core ideas of his previous books The Black Swan and Fooled by Randomness — especially how unpredictable events, randomness, and luck play a crucial role in our lives — Taleb further develops the potentially positive role of uncertainty, chaos, and volatility, phenomena we instinctively tend to fear. Paradoxically, according to the author, these are exactly the things we can benefit from to achieve overall resilience — just as the strength of our bones increases when they are stressed. If we manage this, we will be able to succeed even in today’s uncertain and rapidly changing world.

who is Ján Košturiak?

Ján Košturiak studied mechanical engineering and industrial engineering, has long collaborated with Fraunhofer, Europe’s largest applied research organization, contributed to the development of the Simple++ system (now PlantSimulation), and worked on dozens of innovations with multinational and domestic companies — including VW, Mercedes, and Siemens. He is a co-founder of IPA Slovakia, the agricultural cooperative Agrokruh, collaborates on the development of a customizable eBike and its additive manufacturing, and is building his own Podnikatelská univerzita (www.podnikatelskauniverzita.sk), where he connects innovators and entrepreneurs. He is active in the Dobrý pastier community (ozdobrypastier.eu), which supports 350 people on the margins of society in returning to life through entrepreneurial activities. He lives between Varín in Slovakia and Měrůtky in Moravia with his wife Milena and their children Ján, Lucia, and Zuzana. He enjoys mountain biking, hiking, and writing books.