Taleb talks about these types of scenarios in Antifragile, where actually many of his predecessors took jobs with the Lebanese Civil Service in order to put bread on the table, and then were sort of philosophes in their spare time, writing and reading.
I have to disagree. My biggest complaint (if I could call it that) with his previous book, The Black Swan, was that it lacked practical application of his principles, e.g., he exposes the hidden prevalence of asymmetries but doesn't place them within the broader context of how one should live. Antifragile does just that. His title alone is worth the price of the book. Antifragile describes something that gains from disorder rather than is merely robust to it, and we don't have a word in English to describe this
I think it is his best. If you want the hack, listen to it on tape first before reading it. You'll realize he's quite nuanced in his arguments, and really operating intellectually amongst the greats -- not simple econo-self-help sort of stuff, but really deep thoughts abut heuristics, tradition, human society, evolution, etc.
Second for Antifragile. His earlier books are more approachable, but I found Antifragile fascinating and I think about various principles from the book regularly. One of a handful of books I keep on the bookshelf at my office at all times.
Agree agree agree. He's bidding for the sort of intellectual immortality with Antigragile. The Fat Tony dialogues are really a pleasure, and a throwback to Plato's Dialogues. Really enjoyable, meaty stuff.
