Much Too Delicate<\/b><\/p>\n
In a recent conversation concerning resilience, I offered a thought that I described as The Great Dilemma in Parenting, <\/i>which is the tendency to protect our children from harm while we know that the difficult situations will make them mentally, emotionally and spiritually stronger. If you have ever wondered how to navigate this dilemma, Nassim Nicholas Taleb has too and posits an observation – we are all much too fragile. That, itself, is a fragile idea in the manner that Taleb offers it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This is the premise of the book, Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder<\/i>. In the book, Taleb observes, \u201cSome things benefit from shocks\u2026Yet, in spite of the ubiquity of the phenomenon, there is no word for the exact opposite of fragile. Let us call it antifragile.\u201d[1] This should be enough to peak one\u2019s curiosity, particularly if you have ever spent some time reflecting on your own resiliency and what contributed to it. In doing so, you will have noticed that it was the inevitable difficulty in life that made you stronger. If that is the case, than why do we avoid and attempt to eliminate suffering in very circumstance? The reality is that it is impossible to eliminate suffering due to Black Swan events which are \u201cunpredictable and irregular events of massive consequence.\u201d[2] The antidote is to choose to be antifragile and embrace the randomness of life.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Antifragility Applied\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n All of this seems captivating on the surface. Of course, one would rather be antifragile (the opposite is fragile, after all) the question is how this actually works in reality. Taleb is ready to answer this question through a wide-ranging romp across various disciplines such as economics, business, science, philosophy, parenting, education and evolutionary theory. Presented in a style meant to model the very antifragile perspective he is espousing, Taleb offers his observations in a number of situations, including how to have a proper lunch.[3]\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This is where antifragile becomes less attractive. Taleb offers observations where he sees fragile behavior on display and it reads like the domineering co-worker that will corner you with his latest insight. For example, Taleb rants, \u201cI feel anger and frustration when I think that one in ten Americans beyond the age of high school is on some kind of antidepressant, such as Prozac. Indeed, when you go through mood swings, you now have to justify why you are not<\/i> on some medication.\u201d[4] This reads like the very confirmation bias that Taleb is reporting to speak against. Another example is of Taleb\u2019s friend Chad (I do like the name) who had was subjected to imprisonment and extortion in a foreign country but is no longer subject to \u201ctouristification\u201d and is now an adventurer.[5] I wonder if Chad feels the same way about his experience.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n There are other great observations about antifragility. One is the barbell example of how one should approach risk. Taleb argues that trying to mitigate risk by balancing between safety and risk is not a viable posture to take. Instead, he states, \u201cFor antifragility is the combination aggressiveness plus paranoia<\/i> – clip your downside, protect yourself from extreme harm, and let the upside, the positive Black Swan, take care of itself.\u201d[6]<\/p>\n Fragile Concept Maybe<\/b><\/p>\n What is the best perspective to the dilemma of protect or seek out suffering? I believe Taleb would say embrace the randomness and unpredictability of life knowing that you will suffer at times, but you won\u2019t be fragile. You will be able to thrive when others are not able to. That is a compelling idea, yet it is a path that cannot be chosen for others. Parents have to use wisdom to know when to let their children fall down and when to catch them. Supervisors will have to use similar wisdom as they trust and empower their team. The trouble becomes when we prescribe antifragility to others, or more to the point, diagnosing others as fragile. The least you become is the awkward person who corners people with unwanted observations about life, politics and \u201ckids these days.\u201d At worse, you become a bully touting your awesomeness compared to your peers. I\u2019m not sure which Taleb is, but his observations are worth considering.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u200c1. Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Antifragile: How to Live in a World We Don\u2019t Understand<\/i> (Random House, 2012), 3.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n 2. Ibid., 6.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n 3. Ibid., 144.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n 4. Ibid., 61.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n 5. Ibid., 62-23.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n 6. Ibid., 162<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Much Too Delicate In a recent conversation concerning resilience, I offered a thought that I described as The Great Dilemma in Parenting, which is the tendency to protect our children from harm while we know that the difficult situations will make them mentally, emotionally and spiritually stronger. If you have ever wondered how to navigate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":163,"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":[2948],"class_list":["post-34582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-antifragile-taleb-dlgp01","cohort-dlgp01"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34582","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\/163"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34582"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34582\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34583,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34582\/revisions\/34583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}