Surprisingly Provoking
Taleb is a Lebanese American statistician, trader, and analyst who also became a well-known author. One book, the Black Swan, came out in 2007 and was touted as one of the most influential books since WWII.[1] I found it helpful to have a rudimentary understanding of The Black Swan as the prologue of Antifragile suggests that it is the main volume and The Black Swan serves as a supporting, theological work. Being that I have not read The Black Swan, the key ideas as cited on Blinkist were helpful:
- “Black Swans” are events thought to lie outside the realm of possibility, and yet happen anyway.
- Black Swan events can have earth-shattering consequences for those who are blind to them.
- We are very easily fooled by even the most basic of logical fallacies.
- The way that our brains categorize information makes accurate predictions extremely difficult.
- We don’t easily distinguish between scalable and non-scalable information.
- We are far too confident in what we believe we know.
- Taking an inventory of what you don’t know will help you to assess risks better.
- Having a good understanding of our limitations as human beings can help us to make better choices.[2]
Antifragile is often classified among psychological works, but the book’s influence is vast, spanning across economics, religion, entrepreneurship, and politics, to name a few. Composed of seven sections, or books as Taleb refers to them, there are three levels at which the book is written: #1 – literary and philosophical, #2 – the appendix, and #3 – backup material. The prologue provided a helpful definition of “antifragile.” It says,
Some things benefit from shocks; they thrive and grow when exposed to volatility, randomness, disorder, and stressors and love adventure, risk, and uncertainty. Yet, in spite of the ubiquity of the phenomenon, there is no word for the exact opposite of fragile. Let us call it antifragile.
Antifragility is beyond resilience or robustness. The resilient resists shocks and stays the same; the antifragile gets better. (bold print mine)[3]
An illustration I found helpful to understand antifragility was the story of Hydra in Greek mythology. Each time Hydra had a head cut off in battle, two would grow in its place. While Hydra’s enemies thought they were weakening (and even killing) the serpent, in all reality, the opposition only served to strengthen her. This is an example of antifragile.
Two reviews provided me with valuable insights into conceptualizing this complex book. The first was “7 Key Takeaways From Taleb’s Antifragile” and the second was Antifragile Summary and Review, written by Taleb himself. Following are his ten key ideas:
- The antifragility of a system depends on the fragility of its constituent parts.
- Shocks and stressors strengthen antifragile systems by forcing them to build up extra capacity.
- Tranquil environments result in fragile systems – antifragility stems from volatility — It is birthed in chaos.
- To take advantage of antifragility you don’t need to understand the opportunities you see, just when to seize them.
- To become antifragile, manage your risks so you can benefit from unpredictable events.
- The larger the organization or system is, the harder it will be hit by unexpected crises.
- Many modern professions are antifragile, but at everybody else’s expense.
- Our desire to eliminate volatility from life will eventually make our society more fragile — we need struggle (and I would say a theology of suffering).
- Modern teaching suffers from a “turkey problem” – we misread the past to predict the future.
- We undervalue the role of antifragility in fuelling progress and advances in society.[4]
I confess that upon my first read of this book, I was less than engaged. Taleb’s writing came across as dry, philosophical, and wordy. However, having reviewed my notes on the book and re-reading a few blogs, I retract my initial sentiment and acknowledge that while this book has some deep waters, it is worth the struggle to glean from his perspective. On the heels of Polanyi, I saw a direct connection to his work when Taleb states, “We know more than we think we do, a lot more than we can articulate.”[5] I also could not help but consider The Molecule of More and the antifragility the early explorers demonstrated, driven by a desire for more and a lack of contentment for “the ways things have always been.”
I look forward to what my colleagues glean from this book. If I had more time (and space to write!), and I was not looking at a stack of nearly thirty books on my “to read shelf,” this is a book I would want to re-read and discuss with a few colleagues as I believe there are some incredibly valuable leadership principles that could be applied in a variety of contexts.
[1] “Books That Helped to Change the World | the Sunday Times,” accessed October 24, 2022, https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/books-that-helped-to-change-the-world-qbhxgvg2kwh.
[2] The Black Swan | Summary of Key Ideas | Book by Nassim Nicholas Taleb – Blinkist, n.d., accessed October 24, 2022, https://www.blinkist.com/en/books/the-black-swan-en.
[3] Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder, Random House Trade Paperback edition. (New York: Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2014), 3.
[4] Nassim Nicholas Taleb, “Antifragile Summary and Review,” accessed September 20, 2022, https://lifeclub.org/books/antifragile-nicholas-nassim-taleb-review-summary.
[5] Taleb, Antifragile, 35.
5 responses to “Surprisingly Provoking”
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Nice connection with this book to “The Molecule and More.” I hadn’t thought of that but its true–the human body is antifragile. All of us were built by God to be antifragile–we have grown stronger and wiser as our lives are lived. That’s the great part of growing older I think–we can see our growth in faith, knowledge, wisdom, maturity. Getting old ain’t so bad, huh?
Eric, thanks for giving the key points of The Black Swan. I’ve heard about the book, but have not read it and Taleb refers to it often in this week’s reading. I really like your comment that we need a theology of suffering! I fear that we set people up for disappointment when we preach that following Jesus means unicorns and roses. Why do you think a theology of suffering has become a hard teaching to find in Christian churches?
Thanks for the question. I wonder, and speculate, that perhaps this challenge is not unique to the Church. Historically it seems that it was usually due to outside events that the church was forced to embrace a theology of suffering (because they were living it), though it was not their choice. The outcome of that was indeed suffering, but also growth. We are seeing that right now in places like Afghanistan and Iran, where there is increased suffering, the church grows.
We have it pretty good here in America. While we can “try and prepare” as best as possible, my guess is that it isn’t until we are actually suffering that we will learn to embrace a theology of suffering.
Eric, thank you for bringing in other sources!
Your #7 in the list of key points relates to Taleb’s chapter 4, “What Kills Me Makes Others Stronger.” His point is that at times to be antifragile, requires collateral fragility for others. How would you apply a theology of suffering to this?
Eric, nice summary of the book. You used the limited words of the blog to cover the most important aspects. I am curious to find out if there was anything in particular in this book that irritated your understanding and/or implementation of leadership skills?