Journal Article•
Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder
01 Oct 2013-Mathematics and Computer Education (Mathematics and Computer Education)-Vol. 47, Iss: 3, pp 238
TL;DR: Antifragile as discussed by the authors is a book about the structure and behavior of dynamic systems, where the author classifies systems by the nonlinearity (convexity and concavity) of their utility or health functions as either ant-fragile or fragile.
Abstract: ANTIFRAGILE: THINGS THAT GAIN FROM DISORDER Nassim Nicholas Taleb Random House, New York, 2012, 519 pp. ISBN: 978-1-4000-6782-4Antifragile is a book about the structure and behavior of dynamic systems. To a mathematician, this is mainstream mathematics. However, Taleb, writing for a general audience, seems to try to hide the formal mathematics and obscure its usefulness by his focus on a more literary, historical, and philosophical presentation. Yet, in the end, enough mathematical evidence and explanation of Taleb's antifragile theory as well as examples make this book worthy of consideration. Taleb's theory is simple enough. He classifies systems by the nonlinearity (convexity and concavity) of their utility or health functions as either antifragile or fragile. While never producing a precise measure for this property for systems or entities, he does give myriad interesting examples of his theory in systems, items, and concepts from biology, human nature, natural science, information science, social science, business, literature, politics, and philosophy. Taleb's reason for inventing the term "antifragile" is interesting: "Half of life - the interesting half of life - we don't have a name for." (p. 33)It's a shame that Taleb does not take a more mathematical and scientific approach to his fragility concept, because many excellent points could be made and insights developed that could help to understand his examples. Taleb uses the word "antifragile" to describe systems that are the opposite of fragile, and therefore, usually, a property to celebrate, advocate, design and use to one's benefit. Systems and items that improve or gain from disorder and stress are antifragile to that disorder or stress. The nonlinearity of antifragility can come from many properties of the system: redundancy, complexity, volatility, randomness, and asymmetry, the author's interesting examples come from all areas of life. Some that are rich in flavor and insight include health, medicine, love, banking, traffic, research, decision making, education, ethics, government, religion, smoking, technology, and weightlifting. The author is careful to contrast the antifragility property with related but different concepts of robustness and resilience.This book contains seven sections (called books), a glossary, a bibliography, and two appendices. The first and most insightful table is a five-page Table of Triads - a classification of dozens of elements by their range of fragility (fragility on one end, antifragile on the other, and robustness in the middle - thus the term triad). For example, directed research is fragile, opportunistic research is robust, and stochastic tinkering is antifragile. Corporate employment is fragile, the dental profession is robust, and taxi driving can be considered antifragile. Bureaucrats are fragile and entrepreneurs are antifragile. In literature, e-readers are fragile, books are robust, and oral tradition is antifragile. Mother Nature is Taleb's prime example of antifragility - living things like "a certain measure of randomness and disorder", (p. …
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