Jaron Lanier: The Internet destroyed the middle class

Re:Jaron Lanier: The Internet destroyed the middle class by harryh on Sunday May 12, 2013 @03:00PM (#5695395)

In 1900 something like 40% of the American workforce worked on farms. Today it's around 2%.

Farming is a fragile profession? It's been around for thousands of years!

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Re:Jaron Lanier: The Internet destroyed the middle class by lhnz on Sunday May 12, 2013 @03:34PM (#5695523)

I'd bet that the only 'job' Taleb would say was antifragile would be something like entrepreneurship.

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Re:Jaron Lanier: The Internet destroyed the middle class by twic on Sunday May 12, 2013 @05:18PM (#5695880)

He'd probably have to agree that writing smart-arse books about economics is a durable career.

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Re:Jaron Lanier: The Internet destroyed the middle class by JamesArgo on Sunday May 12, 2013 @03:55PM (#5695592)

I don't know about that. My model of Taleb has him pointing out the many dangers of entrepreneurship, and the myriad biases which lead people to underestimate the risks of starting a business--survivorship bias et all.

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Re:Jaron Lanier: The Internet destroyed the middle class by lhnz on Sunday May 12, 2013 @04:58PM (#5695808)

Actually, I'm kind of wrong -- but kind of right. Pg. 80 says "You are the source of our anti-fragility" in regards to entrepreneurs. Basically it's lots of small fragililities which tend to create anti-fragility - hundreds of entrepreneurs trying to create businesses and failing over and over again, causes economic growth.

If you are able to live cheaply, and learn a lot doing something risky, you are being anti-fragile.

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