Taleb is a character, to be sure, and he offers many cogent insights in this segment. I especially resonate with the idea that, unlike sales skills, expertise comes from first-hand risk work: seeing what goes wrong and cleaning up mistakes and messes; then designing systems and approaches to minimize the impact of bad outcomes.

The term antifragile was popularized in Taleb’s book of the same name to refer to how systems can be strengthened during extreme disruptions, citing examples from mathematics and science.

In a wide-ranging interview, Taleb admits that he made a mistake when he first studied Bitcoin — failing to appreciate the fact that the cryptocurrency is ultimately fragile because it’s dependent on miners staying operational, whereas gold will always be gold even a thousand years from now.

And when it comes to tech and the recent turmoil around Silicon Valley Bank, Taleb says venture capital exhibits “Ponzi-like” characteristics. In his view, many high-profile VCs “feel that society owes them something because we use an iPhone. They feel that if we use an iPhone, we owe them something and should bail them out if needed.” Here is a direct audio link.