Book Summary - Antifragile

Book I - Introduction

• Opposite of fragile is not robust (unharmed), it is antifragile (improved).
• Complex societies >> more specialization >> more vulnerable to collapse (easier to topple balance)
• Some histories
  • Mithridatization = small dose of substance until immune to it
  • Hormesis = small dose of harmful substance actually beneficial, act as medicine --> a form of creating redundancy in systems
  • a fast (caloric restriction)
• Domain dependence = rich person has someone carry bag for him, to go to the gym to exercise
• Under-compensation (no stressors, too bored) and over-compensation (good level of stressors)
• Stressors are information that system can use to improve (after it survives that stressor, or if not, the group can still benefit from the info)
• humans tend to do better with low freq/high severity stressors, with ample rest time
• Evolution is group benefiting from sacrifice of the few. Individuals might not become stronger, but the group is, after surviving stressors (with valuable information)
• Be careful of mistaking some cases as individual improvement rather than culling out the weak

Book II - Modernity and the Denial of Antifragility

• Artisans (taxi drivers etc.) has seen explicit volatility of day-by-day income, hence can adjust strategy accordingly. Permanent employees however, are generally unprepared for the (hidden) coming layoff or job changes. The problem is exacerbated by the low-freq / high-sev of these events.
• Usually the more variability is observed in a system, the less Black Swan-prone it is.
• Centralized state (Russia) is fragile, while City state (Switzerland) is antifragile.