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Monday, January 23, 2012

Quote of the Day: The antilibrary

Nassim Taleb (Black Swan pg. 1):

Read books are far less valuable than unread ones. The library should contain as much of what you do not know as your financial means, mortgage rates, and the currently tight real-estate market allow you to put there. You will accumulate more knowledge and more books as you grow older, and the growing number of unread books on the shelves will look at you menacingly. Indeed, the more you know, the larger the rows of unread books. Let us call this collection of unread books an antilibrary.

For an hour or so of really interesting listening: Russ Roberts interviews Taleb about his upcoming book on the subject of "Antifragility".

1 comment:

  1. Lots of us who love books have both a library and an antilibrary. I used to feel somewhat guilty about not having read some of the books I own that used to stand with their faces to the wall, ashamed of their status of 'unreadness'. Now I and they can feel proud: they constitute an important body, namely, the ANTILIBRARY! Bless their little jacket covers!

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