Things Learned From…
David Phelps — Summary of Taleb’s Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder
Nassim Taleb, from his book Antifragile
Some things benefit from shocks;
they thrive and grow when exposed to volatility, randomness, disorder, and stressors and [they] love adventure, risk and uncertainty.
Antifragility is beyond resilience and robustness.
Phelps:
Something that breaks is fragile and what remains the same or unaffected is called robust.
But antifragile gets better and stronger the more it gets kicked around.
Example of Antifragility:
Muscles of our body.
When you go to the weight room and lift heavy weights, the muscle fibers in your arm break.
Overnight, during rest periods, these broken muscle fibers will overcompensate for the pain they felt and grow back stronger.
Phelps:
When I was much younger and preparing to graduate…I didn’t necessarily desire stress.
I was willing to put in hard work…but what I sought was some level of stability, peace of mind, some margin of perceived safety. We all want this.
Unfortunately, a “no-change” lifestyle is not part of the package.
The sooner we learn to accept that life is replete with audibles and changes, the sooner we can become antifragile.
We should crave disorder. Being antifragile means…adjusting, adapting, and pivoting as needed.
Let’s say that there is no randomness in your life.
You wake up, go to work for eight hours, come home, eat dinner, watch TV for a couple of hours, and go to bed.
This is routine. This is a rut. No stress.
When there is no randomness in your life, your mind and body will eventually break down; there is no growth.
Stress prepares the body and mind for more significant pressures — capacity increases.
Planning for periods of uncertainty can be done by accepting situations for what they are and preparing for all possible scenarios.
Becoming accustomed to difficult times and challenges only makes us stronger and more enduring.
Antifragile is about living in this fundamentally unpredictable world, growing stronger, and persevering.
Antifragile things can repair themselves, but they also become more robust in the process of doing so.
The problem with antifragile is that it generally doesn’t seem to make sense in the short run.
If the bulldozer doesn’t move, you can make money picking up the pennies in front of it. It’s easy and efficient if it lasts.
If you are too concerned about the bulldozer, the only thing you see is that everybody else is making money while you aren’t. That’s hard to resist.
For a company to grow, it must take risks. Taking risks puts the business in a position to grow and expand.
The owner must be willing to test many small bets to build antifragility. The status quo is a dangerous state of being.
Taleb…argues that the usual ups and downs of the business cycle should be welcomed, not avoided.
Thanks for reading! Hope you have a magnificent day.
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