Ask AI: What is an Antilibrary?

I asked Claude: what is an antilibrary?

An antilibrary is a collection of unread books that represents potential knowledge rather than acquired knowledge. The concept was popularized by mathematician and philosopher Nassim Nicholas Taleb in his book “The Black Swan.”

The core idea behind an antilibrary is that unread books are more valuable than read ones because they represent what you don’t yet know. Your library of read books shows what you’ve already learned, but your antilibrary represents your curiosity, humility, and acknowledgment of your knowledge gaps.

Key aspects of the antilibrary concept include:

It serves as a reminder of your intellectual limitations
It creates a tangible representation of “unknown unknowns”
It values the pursuit of knowledge over the accumulation of facts
It shifts focus from knowledge consumption to intellectual curiosity
It embraces the idea that wisdom comes from understanding what you don’t know

Many scholars and intellectuals throughout history have maintained large personal libraries where most books remained unread.

The antilibrary concept gives this practice philosophical meaning, suggesting that surrounding yourself with unread books keeps your mind open to new possibilities and prevents intellectual arrogance.