In his book Antifragile-Things That Gain From Disorder, Nassim Taleb introduced to all of us the idea of antifragility. This is a form of evolved resilience that any person or a system can possess.
But first, what is resilience?
It is the capacity to withstand any sort of pressure or stress without breaking down.
In contrast, when you put pressure or stress on a system that is antifragile, it actually grows bigger and stronger as a consequence of the stress or the pressure.
If we take the example of our muscular system, when we work out or lift weights, we are putting pressure on our muscles. And, as a result of the stress we put on our muscles, we actually grow stronger.
The idea of antifragility is something we can extend into other spheres of our life. Here are a few examples.
- Early in the career, you take on different tasks, even beyond your immediate capacity, without worrying about failure. When you take risks, you are bound to fail regularly. But later in your career, thanks to all your failures and lessons, you are more ready to take on bigger, more complex, and challenging roles. Experiencing failure makes you antifragile.
- Embrace bigger and more audacious goals at your workplace. The stress and challenge of working on stretch goals make you better because you are forced to be more creative and more persevering. Naturally, you become more valuable due to taking on the bigger goals. You become antifragile.
- You are fragile when you care and worry about what others think about you. But if you consciously tune yourself to not care about what others think about you, you are making yourself antifragile.
Antifragility is all about the idea of growth through struggle. As we go through life, we benefit from applying the lessons of our past struggles and travails to our future success.
Antifragility is beyond resilience or robustness. The resilient resists shocks and stays the same; the antifragile gets better.
Nassim Taleb