Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder
Antifragile systems gain from disorder and volatility
Taleb's concept of antifragility - systems that gain from disorder rather than merely surviving it - provides the theoretical framework for understanding why biological bet-hedging strategies outperform in variable environments. The biological strategies in this chapter predate Taleb's framework by millions of years but share the same principle.
The book argues that modern institutions systematically suppress volatility in ways that create fragility, while natural systems evolved to benefit from regular stress. This underlies the chapter's argument for counter-cyclical strategies and capacity buffers.
Key Findings from Taleb & Taleb (2012)
- Antifragile systems gain from disorder and volatility
- Suppressing volatility creates fragility
- Redundancy and optionality build antifragility
- Introduced concept of antifragility
- Systems can gain from disorder and stress
- Limits of prediction in complex systems
- Unknown unknowns require different strategies than known risks
Used in 2 chapters
See how this research informs the book's frameworks:
Concept of antifragility - systems that gain from disorder - provides theoretical framework for understanding why biological bet-hedging outperforms in variable environments.
See antifragility in practice →Philosophical treatment of systems that benefit from stressors, informing the chapter's uncertainty typology for redundancy decisions.
See antifragility and redundancy →