To most people, the opposite of being fragile is being robust, stable or sturdy. That’s true in one sense, but not really.
It’s kind of like having the opportunity to trip someone over and saying that the opposite is not tripping them over. But the fact of the matter is that nothing’s changed if you don’t trip them. It’s binary in that either you trip them, or you don’t.
I can understand that we think that robustness is the contrary to fragility. I thought so too up until a couple of weeks ago. But thinking about it, it isn’t. Let’s get back to the tripping people over.
We have choice A, which is tripping them over, and choice B, which is not tripping them over. If we’re designing a video game, this might be what we settle with, but life isn’t a video game and therefore we have more options. In this case, the third option, C, might be to help the person by carrying one of their bags for them.
In the same way, if we’re looking at something we might deem it fragile or robust. But the third option, antifragility, hasn’t even crossed our mind.
The characteristics of something fragile and something robust looks something like this.
The fragile break under a specific type and amount of pressure.
The robust doesn’t change under a specific type and amount of pressure.
That’s what makes them fragile or robust. Much like tripping someone over, either you make them fall or they go on with their day.
The antifragile gets better under a specific type and amount of the pressure.
In this case, we’re helping the person that we see. We make their day a bit better, their work a bit more pleasurable or so. Instead of tripping them, or letting them be, we do something to improve the situation for them.
Antifragility in that sense, is that something benefits from taking specific types and amounts of hits. Like your immune system that gets better every time you’re infected. Or an old teapot that gets shinier and shinier the more you use it.