Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Thousands of incredible audiobooks and podcasts to take wherever you go.
Immerse yourself in a world of storytelling with the Plus Catalogue - unlimited listening to thousands of select audiobooks, podcasts and Audible Originals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

The Calm Before the Storm

By: Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Gregory F. Treverton
Narrated by: Kevin Stillwell
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Buy Now for £1.79

Buy Now for £1.79

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Summary

Instead of trying to predict "Black Swan" events such as coups or crises, forecasters should look at how political systems handle disorder. The best indicator of a country's future trajectory is not a lengthy past stability, but recent moderate volatility.

©2015 Foreign Affairs (P)2015 Audible, Inc.
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

What listeners say about The Calm Before the Storm

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    52
  • 4 Stars
    19
  • 3 Stars
    7
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    3
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    51
  • 4 Stars
    9
  • 3 Stars
    7
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    1
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    43
  • 4 Stars
    16
  • 3 Stars
    7
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    2

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Worth a listen.

Taleb's signature brand of thought-provoking contrarianism, this time focused on dissecting conventional notions of what constitutes stability and instability.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Interesting & thought provoking

Interesting and well narrated. Highly recommended listen for anyone curious, wanting an overview of the proposed mechanisms of political and economic fragility with examples discussed

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Wow, Great Help

This was a blessing to listen to. It really describes how things pan out. Which can help guide for more successful outcome

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Interesting little essay

I found it interesting and educational as it helped me see things a different way in terms of relative stability of countries, and their ability to deal with major incidents. Thought provoking.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Good short story

It's a good overview of economic fragility of countries but it is brief and does not go in depth for risk

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Another piece of the puzzle

Clear & concise. I will definitely be looking further into Nassim's works. This offers a good starting point. These are strange & confusing times to be alive & while I am a pacifist at heart, it can make it difficult to understand the nature of growth in society from perspectives outside of this point of view. Nassim's perspectives from historical tendencies & philosophical nature offer a much welcomed way of grasping concepts that all too often feel too large (for me) to understand.

It's a port in a storm & I shall definitely be exploring the territory of his works for furthering my investigations. I believe it's better to be informed that a person can make an executive decision, regardless of where the decision takes you. This is a synopsis & therefore won't give you answers to life, the universe & everything, but offers some useful tidbits that encourages further research. At the very least, it's helping me feel less like I'm being swept along with the tide.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

interesting

about the markers of an economically “fragile” nation. i found it quite interesting, even though i am not completely on board with Taleb's theories, for example, i don’t necessarily think “post-traumatic growth” is the best indicator of “antifragility”, when it can be directly proportional with the competence of whoever was able to get their point across in the decision making, in that period full of crucial moments. now, i am not advocating for soviet-style centralisation (an example in the article), but in our democracies getting the overall best points across is not a default given, it comes and goes, and competence is not obvious. after this, i'm definitely interested to read more from Taleb to get more understanding of his theories. good short article.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

US government funded

Not very interesting and not very trustworthy.
Glad it was only half an hour long

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!