Antifragility: A New Perspective on Growth
“It doesn’t get any less scary. All that happens is that you have less life left. It helps if you do your falling early, and it really helps if you do your reaching early.” — Author Mary H.K. Choi on the importance of not waiting, Source: ILY Magazine
In Greek mythology, Heracles, on his journey to complete his twelve labors, was confronted with the giant, nine-headed serpent, Hydra. After journeying to the marshes of Lerna with Iolaos, where the Hydra terrorized the land, Heracles lured her out with his flaming torches. Hydra, known to be so poisonous that she killed men with only the scent of her breath, was considered to be invincible. Every time one of her heads was cut off, two more would grow in its place. This did not dismay Heracles. Upon learning of her skill, he instructed Iolaos to burn the stumps before a new head could grow, preventing their regeneration, and allowing Heracles to defeat the “invincible” head that lay at Hydra’s center and then Hydra.
Each time Heracles chopped off one of Hydra’s heads, two new ones grew back in its place. Hydra was growing stronger each time she was attacked. This idea is called Antifragility. Antifragility is a term coined by Nassim Taleb in his book Antifragile: Things that Gain from Disorder.
As opposed to fragility, where things are weakened when they are harmed, or resilience, which focuses on adapting to difficulty and change but not growing, antifragility focuses on becoming stronger. Antifragility offers an opportunity for growth through difficult times. The Hydra was physically antifragile because she grew stronger each time she was harmed, while Heracles was mentally antifragile because his perspective and problem solving changed and grew the more he fought and learned from Hydra. When he realized Hydra’s strengths, he developed a strategy that allowed him to defeat the “invincible” beast.
Had Heracles given up, we never would have heard of him, but his story offers us strength. During difficult times, it is easy to give up at the first sign of challenge, but this offers no chance for growth. Challenge is nothing more than an opportunity to see what we are truly capable of and become stronger.
Unlike Hydra, humans aren’t growing extra limbs, but we can grow in other ways. Facing difficulty, challenge, and failure, allows us to grow mentally. Failure is often the greatest teacher in life. Yet, it is often painted in a negative light and avoided. Failure, difficulty, challenge, and surprise, when embraced, offers the greatest path forward for growth.
Cultivating antifragility isn’t difficult, but it requires change to the status quo. Failure must be sought out and embraced. We must learn to be comfortable being uncomfortable. The ego must be left at the door, so we can appreciate the lessons as they arise and not fight against them to maintain an opinion of ourself, or to protect the work we put in in the past. This may mean scrapping a project after weeks or years putting your heart and soul into it. It may mean standing up in front of your team and admitting you failed. Antifragility looks different to everyone, but regardless of what it looks like, it is those difficult moments, where we think all is lost, that we can gain the most.
Antifragility is embracing surprise, disorder, and pain with an open mind and always looking for the lesson in it. Simply asking, what can you learn from this? How can you rebuild stronger? can shift your perspective towards the future and away from the past. Rather than focusing on what has been lost, antifragility offers a new opportunity to find what can be gained.
Taleb offers a very simple lesson to take into our daily lives to become more antifragile. One of his greatest skills as an author is stating the most obvious change that is easy to overlook yet is exactly what needs to be done. His lesson is: go out and take action. Thinking about something and discussing the intricate details of it with friends and colleagues may feel like progress but is, in fact, useless without action. The real lessons come from taking a small step, failing, learning from it, and trying again, ad infinitum. Trial and error truly is the best teacher.
Formal education plays a role in growth, but it will always be descriptive of others actions and successes rather than progressive towards your own goals. This was one of my biggest qualms with some of the classes I took during my master’s at Cambridge. It seemed we discussed constantly theories and ideas that couldn’t be taken and used to create change. They were great for sounding intellectual in conversations, but no one was using them to inspire change in the world. Rather, change comes from taking risks, being humble and asking for help from people who have been where you want to go, and seeing failure or error as a critical part of the journey.
Although learning to fly F-16s in the Air Force has been one of the most difficult things I’ve ever done, I love that I am taking the theory and ideas I am learning and acting on them on a daily basis then constantly getting feedback that I can implement to improve. It is extremely hard to show up every day and leave my ego at the door, but it is also incredible satisfying to have the opportunity to constantly become better as a result.
Even after years of practicing, I still fail at this often, and I will continue to fail at it moving forward. However, in that failure, I will make little changes that will eventually add up to a significant change. My goal is to look back after 20+ years and see myself as a completely different person. One who, through small sacrifices and actions, has grown into a person I never could have imagined.
A story that speaks to this perfectly is that of the 1914 fire at Thomas Edison’s factory, where all of his life’s work was stored. Edison’s son recounts in a 1961 article in Reader’s Digest, as the fire ravaged the factory and all their inventions, his father told him “Go get your mother and all her friends. They’ll never see a fire like this again.” A man who had just lost all of his life’s work, was able to look directly at the catastrophe happening in front of his eyes and see a path forward. That is antifragility.
When difficulty arises in your life, take a moment to appreciate the opportunity in front of you. It isn’t every day that life offers a chance to change and grow. It won’t be easy. If you do it right, you’ll walk out the other side with bruises on your ego, but you’ll also come out with knowledge, skills, and results that you never could have imagined. The most difficult part is realizing the signal in front of you and capitalizing on it. It is so easy to feel like a victim, but it is the people that maintain control and find the path forward, regardless of their circumstances, that achieve the life they truly want.
