Antifragility

We, humans, are very unique. We are not exactly glass, which weaken and break under stress, known as fragile things. Nor are we exactly rubber bands, which stay the same under stress, known as resilient things. We are more like open-source software (such a weird example, I understand), which improves when put under stress (i.e. bugs, viruses, etc), known as antifragile things. 

Take our muscles for example. How do we generally strengthen muscles? We weightlift. What does weightlifting do to your body? It puts it under stress; you’re giving your muscles more weight to hold against gravity than it is expected to, strengthening it in the long run. That is how antifragile systems work. They improve and benefit from volatility, uncertainty, and randomness. They adapt, learn, and become stronger when faced with adversity. Another great example is vaccinations. If you think about how vaccinations work, they strengthen your immune system by injecting the virus or pathogen itself in a weaker form into the body and letting the body fight it. That, in and of itself, is an antifragile system. 

It doesn’t necessarily have to be physical objects like muscles. Have you ever noticed that books that are about to get banned or even banned have a boost in sales? While that might be mostly due to curiosity, it is also due to the book publishing being an antifragile system. Education is an antifragile system. How do students learn? For STEM subjects, they solve problems to grasp the concept. The problem is the stressor. For non-STEM subjects, there’s quizzes, tests, etc, that are the stressors that help engrave the information. 

We are born with possibly the greatest system of the three; so why give up when you can go on?