Antifragile How to Live in a World We Dont Understand

Author: Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Rating: 4/5

Date Read: 2013/08/06

Summary

The book Antifragile: Things that gain from disorder, written by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, debates the concept of antifragility and how specific systems thrive precisely because of the shocks and insecurities they go through.

Mobilizing examples from finance, politics, ecology, medicine, architecture, and education, Taleb takes a tour of all areas of human life and beyond to identify and analyze the components that strengthen systems, making them antifragile. Unlike strength and robustness, the antifragile not only resists stress but learns from it and improves from it.

Notes

• The Antifragil: An Introduction - “Intellectuals tend to focus on negative responses from randomness (fragility) rather than the positive ones (antifragility).” - An antifragile system thrives on randomness, uncertainty, stressors, errors, and time. The antifragile person advances confidently amid difficulties. He is not afraid of uncertainty because he has already learned from adversity and knows how to flourish amid chaos. He knows how to handle stress and see opportunities where others only see problems. - Chaos, uncertainty, instability, unforeseen events, loneliness, anxiety... Our society could be defined by these and many other adjectives that have taken center stage in times of crisis. Amid this, there is a survival strategy: you can learn to be antifragile. - You can learn to survive and flourish in challenging circumstances and take advantage of turbulent times. Only when we learn from adversity, we heal and become stronger, faster, wiser; we become our best selves. - [[Actions to Take]] - Practice new habits every day 1. Choose a new habit that you’d like to implement. - Let’s take the example of learning a new language. Choose a language that you always wanted to know but never had the time. 2. Practice for 15 minutes a day. - Following the same example, you could choose to learn one new phrase per day. Practicing just for 15 minutes every day can bring fantastic results in the long run. 3. Keep track of the days you've kept your habit. - Make the new language part of your daily life! You can mark each day you practice your habit on your calendar, for example. - Learn to delegate tasks effectively 1. Choose the best person for the task. - The task's success will depend on the person doing it. Leaders generally rely on team members who have previously proven their effectiveness, responsibility, and commitment. 2. Specify the conditions of the task and a deadline. - Be as precise as possible when defining the tasks, responsibilities, and deadlines. 3. Be available and open to suggestions. - Without getting involved in their tasks, the leader must show himself willing to support the professionals he has trusted if they require it. Internal communication is vital.
  • Modernity And The Denial of Antifragility
    • We made the wrong mistake.
    • One must understand that randomness and life stressors are good for us in most cases. What's more, the lack of randomness causes fragility.
    • To better understand the importance of life stressors, let's compare two workers: a qualified bank clerk and a taxi driver. The first is fragile; he can be fired due to an economic crisis and if he is over a certain age, he is let go from his job. The taxi driver is antifragile, he will have worse and better months, but they are minor crises from which he learns and moves on.
    • What’s more, information overload (the norm today) often leads to unnecessary interventions in today’s society. The excess of information makes us see problems where there are none and we tend to act when we should not, especially in politics and economics.
    • Expose yourself to risks, get out of your comfort zone, and from there, you will be able to evolve and learn to act more naturally in stressful situations. Befriend “uncertainty” and embrace what comes at you, both positive and negative.
    • [[Actions to Take]]
      • Manage risks so you can benefit from unpredictable events
        1. Minimize your risks.
           • Concentrate on the negative part of a situation first and reduce your exposure to the issue step by step. For example, if you have a depleting 9 to 5 job, think of an alternative source of income first.
        2. Begin taking smaller risks that allow you to succeed.
           • Concentrate on the positive next: begin taking smaller risks in highly unpredictable and volatile areas. For example, after establishing one or more alternative income sources, you can quit your 9 to 5 job!
      • Work on tasks when you feel physically and mentally ready
        1. Next time you have to do a task you dread, wait some more time.
           • Procrastination is not entirely bad, but a naturalistic risk-based form of decision making.
        2. Only do the task when you feel physically and mentally ready
           • For this, take some time for introspection. A short meditation can help you clear your mind and feelings related to the task you postponed for so long.
        3. Once you feel ready, sit down and work for only 5 minutes.
           • Set a timer if you have to, but most likely, you’ll end up finishing the task. The 5 minute-rule lowers our stress and fear of negative consequences of our procrastination. Once engaged, you are likely to feel positive and confident about the task you’ve been postponing!
      • Ration the amount of information you receive daily
        1. Set a limit for how much time you want to watch or read the news, including social media channels.
           • Too much information causes too much stress, thus it is better to set a limit for how much time you are spending in front of the news channels.
        2. Only look at the news headlines.
           • By limiting the amount of information, you are limiting the amount of stress you are receiving.
  • A Nonpredictive View of The World
    • “Success brings an asymmetry: you now have a lot more to lose than to gain. You are hence fragile.”
    • Predictions often have bad results for those who make them and for those who believe them. Someone who does not believe in predictions and bets against them usually does well.
    • Take the example of Seneca, who was one of the greatest exponents of Stoicism, an ancient philosophical school focused on practical wisdom. Seneca constantly imagined that he lost everything so that he would be prepared for it if it happened. He was the richest man in the Roman Empire and yet, the loss of his wealth would not have affected him.
    • To protect yourself from negative and unforeseen events and take advantage of positive ones, the best method is to combine both ends, without the middle point.
    • For example, in finance, it is advised to keep 90-95% of your money invested in assets that protect against inflation with the least possible risk, and the rest in things that are as risky as possible. So, if that small part is lost it is not something very serious, and at the same time, there is the option of having very large benefits.
    • [[Actions to Take]]
      • Find someone to eat lunch with
        1. Find a lunch partner.
           • Who is someone, perhaps in your social circle, that can commit to a weekly lunch? Also, consider whether you both can mutually benefit from each other’s skills.
        2. Commit to a weekly or bi-weekly lunch.
           • The right lunch partner will be someone with whom you can hold a productive conversation in a relaxed way.
        3. Share your ideas, make plans, or learn something new from your lunch partner.
           • You should aim to have a lunch partner who can teach you a new skill. Alternatively, look for someone who can help you connect to investors for your new idea.
      • Become financially antifragile
        1. Write down everything you own of value on a piece of paper.
           • For example, your house, car, gadgets, properties, actions, jewelry, or other assets.
        2. Go through the mental exercise of writing off all your possessions.
           • For example, imagine your house is taken away by your bank and you are now homeless. Do the same with every item on your list.
        3. Repeat this exercise daily.
           • Until you feel freed from your possessions, repeat this exercise every morning. Imagine the worst possible situation, and you’ll be able to see the rest of your day as a bonus!
      • Use your travels to become more antifragile
        1. Next time you want to go on vacation, choose the hardest and longest route.
           • Try taking less luggage for example. Traveling in uncomfortable circumstances will make your trip even more rewarding.
        2. Travel alone more often.
           • Visiting a new country is challenging enough, but if you want to up the game, travel solo! Better yet, leave time for adventures. Just plan on landing in the destination city and let circumstances decide the rest.
  • Optionality, Technology, and Antifragility
    • “You will never get to know yourself—your real preferences—unless you face options and choices.”
    • Optionality is an important concept within antifragility. An option is something that has limited detriment and a much higher potential benefit.
    • The advantage of optionality is that you don't have to be the least bit smart to apply it. Trial and error, with a rationale that leads you to identify successful trials, are more than enough. In fact, it is far superior to intelligence and/or knowledge.
    • In most areas, this is a practice that brings progress and knowledge and not the other way around. All discoveries and improvements come from practice. From trial and error - from learning from the best people in the field and especially from their mistakes. Not from theory outright.
    • Moreover, self-taught education is far superior to formal education. It is based on curiosity and does not conform to established norms. It is not boring like formal education is. Success comes from being self-taught.
    • [[Actions to Take]]
      • Maximize your options
        1. Whenever signing a new deal, make sure you have plenty of options to get out.
           • For example, make sure you have a way to end an apartment rental contract early or quit a job, should you need to. This typically involves providing a notice period, but ensure this is outlined in your contract.
      • Seize opportunities
        1. Next time you are invited to something, remember it is just an option.
           • Reframe the way you perceive invitations. Think of them as opportunities, not obligations.
        2. Say yes to the opportunities you are given.
           • Learn to notice opportunities, as they will come at no cost to you. To profit, you just need to see and take the step when the time seems right, even if it involves a risk.
  • The Nonlinear
    • *“If you can say something straightforward in a complicated manner with complex theorems [...] people take the idea very seriously.”
    • Fragile and antifragile things have non-linear responses to volatility. For example, a porcelain mug is fragile. It is not the same to drop it from 1 cm in height 100 times and from 1 meter once. In the first case, nothing may happen, in the second, it will break.
    • There are quite a few examples of non-linear antifragile systems. Evolution could be seen as one too. The process works in such a way that you start with organisms that have certain characteristics to survive in the environments that existed until now. But suddenly, there are changes that begin to generate a certain level of stress on these creatures.
    • This stress makes certain parts, which before were ideal for what they had, become disadvantages, thus fragile. On the other hand, other parts that were not as useful begin to demonstrate their value.
    • The various parts of the whole are fragile, but the whole itself is not. Antifragility is discarding what you don't need and moving on. This is only possible because we, as humans, are capable of obtaining added capabilities in stressful situations.
    • [[Actions to Take]]
      • Challenge the way you eat
        1. Consume your calories and nutrient intake randomly.
           • Instead of following a diet, challenge your body to go Mondays and Wednesdays without protein, for example. Intermittently (and only intermittently) depriving our body of certain food has been shown to bring beneficial effects on energy levels.
        2. Fast on Tuesdays and Thursdays and eat whatever you like on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
           • Fasting is a simple way of challenging your body. It causes a better psychological response because deprivation as a stressor activates some pathways that facilitate the subsequent absorption of the nutrients.
        3. Change the schedule the following week.
           • This way, you will teach your body that each small challenge is a raw material for greater achievement, and thereby improve your health.
      • Embrace what is inconsistent
        1. Take a different road to your house every day for a week.
           • Perhaps you will be able to avoid traffic and get home on time for dinner for once. Or perhaps you will be stuck in traffic and finally have the time to listen to an audiobook or podcast!
        2. Next time a task wearies you, try approaching it differently.
           • Stuck in traffic? Call a friend you haven’t talked with in a while! The more options you give yourself, the more the chances you will succeed. The more uncertainty, the more you will outperform.
  • Via Negativa
    • “In life, antifragility is reached by not being a sucker. ”
    • Time is the highest exponent of volatility. It eliminates the fragile (people, animals) and makes the antifragile (species, information) last. With fragile things (people), a younger item has a longer life expectancy than an old one. What has been around longer is more likely to last longer in the future as well.
    • Subtraction, or the negative path, is the best tool to improve your health and life expectancy. For example, limiting or eliminating surgical or medical interventions to the most urgent or serious would actually improve the effectiveness and efficacy of health systems and patient survival rates.
    • The biggest demonstration of a negative path is how one of the best things that has been done for the health and life expectancy of people in the developed world is to encourage them to quit smoking. This has worked much better than all cancer treatments, operations, and other such medical interventions.
    • [[Actions to Take]]
      • Study hard for what you don’t know about
        1. For each month, choose a subject that interests you although you don’t know too much about it.
           • It could be astronomy, politics, or global warming. We all know something about everything, but you can dare to know more.
        2. Read for 15 minutes a day, and make notes on what you learn.
           • Even when we read about something we are sure we will remember, we forget. So get a notebook and take notes!
        3. Share the information with a colleague or friend at your next lunch break.
           • It is proven that we remember better when we share knowledge.
      • Learn to visualize your future the antifragile way
        1. Make a list of the things, concepts, people, and other aspects that make you fragile.
           • It is easy to find what will eventually break or what brings unhappiness to our life: watching too much TV, having all your money invested in one stock, exercising only once in a while, etc.
        2. Visualize the worst parts of your future so you know what to eliminate.
           • Instead of imagining how you want your life to be, imagine it how you wouldn’t like it to be. Find the bad and eliminate it from your future!
      • Make decisions the antifragile way
        1. Next time you must make a decision, remember that you need just one reason to make something happen.
           • If you invoke more than one reason, you are trying to convince yourself to do something.
        2. If you have more than one reason to do something, drop it.
           • Obvious decisions require no more than a single reason.
  • The Ethics of Fragility and Antifragility
    • “Remember that food would not have a taste if it weren’t for hunger; results are meaningless without effort, joy without sadness, convictions without uncertainty, and an ethical life aren’t so when stripped of personal risks.”
    • Modern life has brought some agents to have optionality at the expense of the fragility of others. A good example of this is opinions. Journalists and professional opinion-makers can say things that contribute to serious consequences, for example, provoking a war like the one in Iraq, and they will not pay any consequences. What's more, they will benefit from it because they will be able to continue giving their opinion. This is very serious. We should act on our opinions, always.
    • The right thing to do is to have a profession that is consistent with your ethics and beliefs. That is, let ethics come first, and let your profession depend on it.
    • There are people who do it the other way around. For example, a president of a tobacco company will justify the consumption of tobacco in any way. The reality is that tobacco causes the premature death of millions of people.
    • [[Actions to Take]]
      • Find out what your values are
        1. Write down what you believe in terms of your values and ethics.
           • Think of what you admire most in people, consider your past experiences as well.
        2. Categorize the values in groups and identify the central theme.
           • Some common examples are family, loyalty, creativity, freedom.
        3. Choose your top core values.
           • Now that you know where your ethics stand, always defend and put them first in a conversation or when confronted with a life-changing decision. By knowing where you stand, you can become an antifragile person.