Antifragility

Set things up so that even failure leaves you better off. Fragile things break under stress. Robust things withstand it. Antifragile things benefit from it.

Muscles get stronger when we stress them.

If you take on a project where you'll learn useful skills, meet interesting people, or discover new opportunities along the way, you might still be better off even if the project ultimately fails.

Look for ways to make your endeavours worthwhile even if the main goal isn't achieved.

Origin

Nassim Nicholas Taleb introduced the concept in his 2012 book Antifragile, exploring why some systems benefit from volatility and uncertainty.

Questions to sit with

  1. 01What projects would you still tackle even if you knew they would fail?