Antifragile celebrates the randomness and unpredictability in all aspects of life. The book teaches readers how to grow stronger by accepting the uncertainty and disorder of the world around them.

Summary Of The Book

If something is fragile, it means that it is delicate and easily damaged. To be antifragile, the author says that one has to thrive on the chaos of the world. Attempting to eliminate the risks and trying to live in a safe cocoon will just make one weak.

Just like the body is strengthened by subjecting it to stress in the form of physical activity, many things are strengthened by the opposition or resistance they encounter. The author points out that rumours and riots gather strength from attempts to quell them.

When people try to fit things into their preconceived notions of how they should be, they actually lower its resilience and dynamism and make it weaker. He says that the world is naturally chaotic and that idea should be embraced not avoided. Just like an overprotective mother might actually affect her children such that they may be unprepared for injuries and failures, entities like organizations and economic systems that try to eliminate risk will actually harm themselves.

Antifragile points out that all things such as individuals, society, businesses and economic systems, are all subject to the rule of the survival of the fittest. Accepting this idea, it says, will ensure that even if the individual fails, the whole system would survive.

To highlight this, the author compares the restaurant and the banking sectors. He says that while the restaurant industry is unaffected by the failure of individual businesses, the highly regulated banking sector is affected by the failure of individual banks.

The author also says that failure is part of the chaotic nature of the world, and that there is no dishonor in failure. The failure of individual entrepreneurs and scientists actually benefits the business or scientific community. They learn from the mistakes of others and become stronger.

About Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Nassim Nicholas Taleb is a Lebanese American statistician and writer.

He is also the author of Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets, The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms, and The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb was born in Lebanon. He earned his Master’s degree in science from the University of Paris. He also has an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. He is a linguist, with command over several languages including English, Arabic, French, Spanish, Italian and Greek. He has taught at many universities like the Oxford University, and the Polytechnic Institute of New York University. His books focus on the ideas of randomness and uncertainty.