Taleb’s Antifragility

What is the opposite of fragile? Robust? Wrong!

It’s natural. Most people would often say robust — something that is not fragile, something that does not break. Whilst this common answer may seem correct at first, one can view fragility in a totally different light.

To understand the question better, let us first ask:

What is fragility?

Fragility is used to describe something that easily breaks or is damaged by a stressor/disorder; this means it is a negative response to a stressor.

Meanwhile if something is robust, then it is strong and durable when a stressor/disorder is applied — meaning it is a neutral response to a stressor. Antifragility on the other hand benefits from a stressor/disorder, and hence is a positive response to a stressor.

We can think of fragility, robustness, and antifragility in the following way:

• Fragility is the negative
• Robustness is neutral
• Antifragility is the positive

Another perspective we can think of fragility as being less hurt by small successive events and being…