{"id":29275,"date":"2022-10-27T11:33:09","date_gmt":"2022-10-27T18:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=29275"},"modified":"2022-10-27T11:33:09","modified_gmt":"2022-10-27T18:33:09","slug":"the-land-beyond-tempered-resilience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/the-land-beyond-tempered-resilience\/","title":{"rendered":"The Land Beyond Tempered Resilience"},"content":{"rendered":"

Antifragile <\/em>by Nassim Nicholas Taleb proved to be a challenging read for me. Subtitled \u201cthings that gain from disorder,\u201d this philosophy book dealing with information theory caused me to stop reading and start watching some explanatory videos about the book. One video, in particular, influenced my post, and I need to acknowledge the source that guided my reflections.[1]<\/a> After the videos, I began to read again with some helpful context. Antifragile<\/em> offers a way to create a map for living well in a world we do not understand due to randomness, variability, and uncertainty. Seven books comprise this volume, with each internal \u201cbook\u201d serving as a section unpacking one subject theme.<\/p>\n

Taleb\u2019s Prologue includes his premise, \u201cSome things benefit from shocks; they thrive and grow when exposed to volatility, randomness, disorder, and stressors and love adventure, risk.\u201d[2]<\/a> Fragile systems and people desire peace and predictability. The opposite would be that which likes and benefits from volatility. The author believes we do not have proper verbiage for the opposite of fragile. Hence the word \u201cantifragile.\u201d Taleb argues against labeling \u201crobust\u201d or resilient as the opposite of fragile. Building on his illustration of blowing wind, a candle gets extinguished by it. The candle is fragile to volatility. In contrast, a lit torch encountering the same wind bends and flickers, but resilience allows it to regain its previous state when the gust subsides. Resilience results in a return to the previous place. Beyond resilience is antifragile, which like a wildfire stoked by the wind, becomes something more significant and stronger by the encounter. According to Taleb, people, systems, and organizations can all be fragile, resilient, or antifragile.<\/p>\n

Certain practices can lead an individual or an organization toward antifragility. One step consists in capping one\u2019s downside rather than increasing the upside. Asking oneself if they have more to gain or lose helps to know if a commitment is worth following pursuing. When there is more to lose than gain, fragility ensues. \u201cMitigating fragility is not an option but a requirement.\u201d[3]<\/a> One who works through potential loss does not become fragile if that loss becomes a reality. When loss gets processed, it allows for the complete enjoyment of that exceeds the processed loss. This emotional processing of potential loss contradicts recent streams of thought found in books like The Secret<\/em> and The Power of Positive Thinking<\/em> that encourage positivity and envisioning the perfect life. The result of entertaining loss produces less fear of uncertainty, randomness, and stress. Rather than fearing the loss of what one has, the consideration of loss allows one to experience the enjoyment of what one has.<\/p>\n

Another step toward antifragility includes finding and enduring measured stress. \u201cFor the antifragile, shocks bring more benefits as their intensity increases (up to a point).\u201d[4]<\/a> As a personal illustration of what I believe Taleb means, I use an illustration from my running days. I ran five days a week for years at a consistent pace and a relatively similar distance. My goal of qualifying for the Boston Marathon at a specific time eluded me. Eventually, I followed a training plan that varied the runs over fourteen weeks, using slow-paced long runs, fast-paced but shorter tempo runs, and repetitive hill training. Rather than running consistently, the stresses of differing inputs resulted in the qualifying time not being achieved by a middling approach found through consistency. Good stress can produce improvements not found in the middle ground of consistency.<\/p>\n

A third practical way toward antifragility comes from applying knowledge gained from learned experience. Taleb critiques the belief that knowledge exists only in the academic realm. Instead, he points toward learning expanded from what he calls \u201ctinkering.\u201d[5]<\/a> Using an illustration of a recipe, he demonstrates that tinkering with ingredients can produce a better dish; thus, a gain has been made. Conversely, if the result is a worse dish, nothing has been lost. This principle sounds much like Michael Polanyi\u2019s idea of embodied learning or learning gained through experience. We know more than we are taught in a formal context.<\/p>\n

As I apply Taleb\u2019s complex argument to leadership, I think of the tendency of an organization like the church to desire peace and resist change. Taleb used an illustration of a stock portfolio better situated with eighty percent invested safely and twenty percent invested in risky ventures rather than investing one hundred percent in moderate risk.[6]<\/a> In a pastoral role, I wonder: am I willing to take certain calculated risks that have the potential for long-term benefit, or am I settling for the middle ground that has a long-term negative effect? In ministry, our calling is to pursue to heart and values of God rather than maintain a peace born out of fear. Adaptive changes bring risk and uncertainty to organizations. Tod Bolsinger guided church leaders toward \u201ctempered resilience.\u201d I believe Taleb would say, \u201cThere\u2019s a place beyond resilience called antifragile where the gains can be substantial.\u201d<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Joe Ochman, \u201cAntifragile by Nassim Taleb,\u201d Core Message <\/em>2021, accessed October 22, 2022, https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=oAJy45NWjmY.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder <\/em>(New York: Random House Publishing, 2014), 3.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Ibid., 159.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Ibid., 271.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Nassim Nicholas Taleb, \u201cAntifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder,\u201d Google Talks <\/em>April 10, 2013, accessed October 23, 2022, https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=S3REdLZ8Xis.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Ibid.Tale<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Antifragile by Nassim Nicholas Taleb proved to be a challenging read for me. Subtitled \u201cthings that gain from disorder,\u201d this philosophy book dealing with information theory caused me to stop reading and start watching some explanatory videos about the book. One video, in particular, influenced my post, and I need to acknowledge the source that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":149,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2411],"class_list":["post-29275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-taleb","cohort-lgp11"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/149"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29275"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29275\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29276,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29275\/revisions\/29276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}