When I was working in a regular job I had to sit all day staring at a screen and have fluorescent lights above my head as the source of illumination.

I wanted and still want and will always want to better myself and evolute my current state of mind and explore different things.

However, I had to contain all of this energy into myself without being able to truly spend it since I had to sit staring at a screen for many many hours all day.

It wasn’t all dark though, the way I found to have some sort of external creetive fuel to my mind was to listen to podcast and music, something I did for the entire 1 year I worked there.

It was a big room with many people and no privacy, only me and my headphones created some sort of invisible barrier where I could breathe a tiny bit without going nuts.

Anyways, I had heard from Taleb some years ago but didn’t pay much attention, until when I heard of him again in a podcast and something made me wanna try reading his book. I don’t truly remember it, but I think I got very excited because the guy who was talking about him told that people had to take risks and I was planning on saving money and firing myself to focus all my time in creating a video game. I think it resonated with me somehow and destiny told me to pirate his book and read it.

As I started to read it I got very happy and kept going reading many pages a day until I got bored, since my life was doing better because I had the opportunity to quit my soul crushing job to work in something I like and from home. Anyways, it took me many years to finish this book, like 2 years and a couple months.

If I had to explain this book I would say the following: Most people don’t know what will happen tomorrow and most people don’t know when they’re going to die. Life itself is the unknown but the way society is organized is as if everything is orderly and easily predicted. Therefore, most humans live a life of illusion which may work fine, until it doesn’t.

Rather than trying to control the unknown, it’s better to use it in our favor. The unknown is the true path. Take risks and remind yourself that the only requirement to die is to be alive, so in this sense you are already taking risks. It’s better to embrace more risks and not less.

Of course only someone with a good inner mind will be able to understand it. Disturbed people will think that by taking risks I mean jumping from a cliff or driving in high speed or something like that.

Anyways, be in a position where you gain unknown and losses are low and known. For instance, if you publish a book, you know you will spend 30 thousand dollars and nothing more than this, but what will you gain? You have no idea, it could become extraordinarily huge and many movies be made based on your book and many people would buy the book and etc. This is asymmetry.

The book is so much better than what I am saying here, so it’s better for yourself to read it and expand your mind.