I have the same question. I didn't get the feeling that life was less meaningful out of it.
It has been a long time since I read it, but my basic understanding was that a lot of success is from luck and showed how that works. I remember clearly the math around investment managers being mostly lucky to have returns above the average yet they get a lot of praise and then their luck runs out. But there are still some that stay lucky for a long time.
If I was a successful investment manager I might question my success.
Similar for me. I first learned of Taleb through another short book called "The Survival of Rats in the Slush Pile" which examines ideas from "Fooled by Randomness" as they relate to fiction publishing. (Taleb in turn briefly references this book somewhere in "The Black Swan".) This was actually encouraging for me, because it meant my stories being rejected by publishers did not necessarily mean my writing wasn't good enough; quality is an important variable up to a point, but "luck" also plays a major role. Recognizing that means you can more effectively leverage it.
It has been a long time since I read it, but my basic understanding was that a lot of success is from luck and showed how that works. I remember clearly the math around investment managers being mostly lucky to have returns above the average yet they get a lot of praise and then their luck runs out. But there are still some that stay lucky for a long time.
If I was a successful investment manager I might question my success.