The same wind that snuffs the candle enlivens the bonfire. When the winds of chaos come to your life, aim to be the bonfire not the candle.
No one escapes the cruel hands of probability. Yet we often only use the most shallow tools to think about fate's grasp on our life.
Instructional Material
- Fooled By Randomness (summary)
- Fragility, Robustness, and Antifragility (article)
- The Statistical Consequences of Fat Tails (optional)
- Nassim Taleb's Course (optional)
Pre-Meeting Assignment
- Find two examples of systems or situations, one personal and one more regional
- Place each system in Mediocristan or Extremistan
- Decide whether each system is fragile, robust, or antifragile
Examples (systems). Electrical power manufacturing, local traffic, your body, international weapons manufacturing, competition in electric car advertising.
Examples (situations). Going to a party where you only know one person, ordering a meal you've never had before, investing a new tech company, getting a warehouse job, becoming a full-time content creator.
Cohort Activity
[10 mins per person] Have each person describe their conclusions of at least one of their homework examples. Brainstorm together how you could position yourselves to take advantage and make yourselves antifragile.