Hi all! This is the second lesson of my online education series in antifragility, an important concept in living a more fulfilling life, why Bitcoin works, generating income without risk of ruin, why evolution works, how to improve the efficiency and rigor of scientific research, and much much more. Think of antifragility as the mathematical backbone of stoic philosophy.

Nassim Taleb's works are required readings: http://fooledbyrandomness.com/
Eventually, we might get to some lessons in math, statistics, history, writings of Karl Popper and Seneca, meditation, zen riddles, cold showers, powerlifting, GMOs, options trading, scientific method, religion vs. science, what is a pseudo-intellectual, evolution, education reform, and more.
Comment below which topic you would like to hear about next!

What is Black Swan Theory?

Black swan theory was developed by Nassim Taleb to explain:

1. The disproportionate role of high-profile, hard-to-predict, and rare events that are beyond the realm of normal expectations in history, science, finance, and technology.
2. The non-computability of the probability of the consequential rare events using scientific methods (owing to the very nature of small probabilities).
3. The psychological biases that blind people, both individually and collectively, to uncertainty and to a rare event's massive role in historical affairs.
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_swan_theory

Why Call it "Black Swan"?

In 16th century Europe, there was a saying in Europe under the assumption that black swans did not exist, similar to the phrase "when pigs fly". It was used to state that something was impossible. However, when actual black swans were discovered in Australia, the whole statement was refuted. Despite all the thousands of white swans in existance, all it took was a single black swan to demonstrate that not all swans are white. This demonstrates the problem with inductive reasoning and the value of deductive falsification.

Many philosophers over the years have criticized inductive reasoning as a method for obtaining knowledge. It can lead to false assumptions and generalizations. C. D. Broad has said "induction is the glory of science and the scandal of philosophy". We will explore the relationship between the scientific method and inductive reasoning in a future post.

That's it for this lesson, thanks for reading!
If you enjoyed this post, please follow me at @limitless

Previous lessons:
Lesson #1: Importance of Decentralizaton: https://steemit.com/antifragile/@limitless/bitesized-lessons-in-antifragility-1-importance-of-decentralization