Antifragility comes from Nassim Nicholas Taleb and his book, Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder.
Being antifragile is different from being resilient or robust. Being resilient or robust means that you bounce back quickly from disturbances. As an example, resiliency is a building that is designed to stand up to hurricane-force winds.
Antifragility moves beyond resiliency by identifying things that not only bounce back quickly from adversity but become stronger in the process. As an example, a surfer may become accustomed to handling rough ocean swells that would drown an inexperienced swimmer.
Taleb explains that:
- Fragile items break under stress, antifragile items get better from it.
- In order for a system to be antifragile, most of its parts must be fragile.
- Antifragile systems work because they build extra capacity when put under stress, uncertainty, and relentless change
Live Like a Hydra
Doug Belshaw shared this excellent post from Buster Benson on Living Like a Hydra. I recommend reading the whole post…multiple times. You won’t regret it.
One of the things I really enjoyed from the piece was this list of 10 ways to live an antifragile life:
- Stick to simple rules
- Build in redundancy and layers (no single point of failure)
- Resist the urge to suppress randomness
- Make sure that you have your soul in the game
- Experiment and tinker — take lots of small risks
- Avoid risks that, if lost, would wipe you out completely
- Don’t get consumed by data
- Keep your options open
- Focus more on avoiding things that don’t work than trying to find out what does work
- Respect the old — look for habits and rules that have been around for a long time
For more on this topic, check out this post from Taleb on the implications of antifragility.
Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash
This post is Day 42 of my #100DaysToOffload challenge. Want to get involved? Find out more at 100daystooffload.com.
