My brother is one of those people who's always onto something. One day it might be the conspiracy theories behind the Egyptian pyramids and the next, it'd be the existing economic systems. That inexhaustible quest for multi-disciplinary knowledge is the foundation of his intelligence and the source of many family anecdotes. "Antifragility" is one of the concepts he recently introduced us to.
According to Wikipedia, this term was coined by Professor Nassim Nicholas Taleb (Apologies for failing as a person who ever set foot at a college) and it is defined as a:
a property of systems that increase in capability to thrive as a result of stressors, shocks, volatility, noise, mistakes, faults, attacks, or failures
It is almost impossible to embody this characteristic when we are bounded by a system that is fragile in itself, as COVID has exposed. But we can train ourselves to be adaptable and resilient.
Four years ago, I went tubing in Harper's Ferry, Virginia. What was supposed to be a fun afternoon ended up being everything but: the tides knocked me off my float every couple of minutes and into the rocks, leaving me bruised, dehydrated, sea-sick and traumatized for years. Yet last weekend, I decided it was time to try again. Soon enough, I discovered the ride was much enjoyable (and less chaotic) when I let myself be carried by the water. The same experience changed radically when I didn't try to control it, but let the river flow instead.
Me "going with the flow"
The real world is quite similar. When we face hardships, uncertainty and pain, our tendency is to enforce control. In this pandemic world, I, for example, have found great comfort in routine because it brings a sense of normalcy. This routine, though, ends up making me more resistant to disruption, to changing plans. That is because trying to force things into being fine just increases frustration and anxiety. Real strength lies in trusting, waiting and then, adapting.
We have all made mistakes, experienced failures or gone through stressors, shocks and pain. As hard as it might sound, these experiences should make us less rigid, less scared.
Whenever we are faced with hardships and unpleasant moments, my family tends to discuss the reasons they happened. We always conclude they happen for greater good and move on, propelled onward by some unexplainable force. I never stopped to think about it, but it might be a testament of our antifragility, collective and individual. And that makes me proud, amidst any fears that the future might harbor.
Today is my brother's birthday and I thought writing this was a nice way to prove I do listen to him sometimes. Because even though he goes on to talk about conspiracy theories and economic systems far beyond my understanding, he does comes up with useful bits of knowledge.
Comments