Essay on Nassim Taleb & Daniel Kahneman: Exploring Antifragility in Uncertainty

The discussion by Nassim Taleb and Daniel Kahneman at New York Public Library provides a clear understanding of antifragility. Nassim Taleb determines the challenges of uncertainty and randomness. Daniel Kahneman is among the most influential psychologist in areas of behavioural economics. The two influential thinkers are famous due to the roles they play to explain decision making in uncertain situations. Taleb is known for his books, including antifragile: things that gain from disorder and fooled by randomness. Consequently, Daniel Kahneman received the Nobel Prize due to his research on the decisions made by people during uncertainties. This essay provides a reaction to the discussion on antifragility by Nassim Taleb and Daniel Kahneman at New York Public Library.

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Nassim Taleb and Daniel Kahneman's discussion about the concept of antifragility has a significant impact on my understanding concerning decision making during uncertainty. The video begins with Taleb's description of a glass of water placed on the table to introduce the concept of antifragility. Before watching the video, I always perceived glass as fragile and the table less fragile. However, Taleb provides a clear explanation and states that fragility in that situation is determined by the state of the table and the glass after exposure to a particular shock-like earthquake. He explains that during an earthquake, the glass has less possibility of staying like glass while the table is less likely to be affected. This indicates that both tables and glass lack the likelihood of benefiting from force uncertainty caused by the earthquake.

The video has helped me appreciate that stress breaks fragile items while antifragile things benefit from the stress. Carton and boxes used to store items like glasses are labeled fragile, and they should be held with care. When the boxes are thrown, the glasses break, resulting in a shattering sound. This means that fragile items like glasses are shattered when a shock is applied to them, and volatility does not have any benefit to the items. However, no word describes boxes as antifragility, which is the opposite of fragile. People can describe items as being durable and robust, although they just indicate that the antifragile things resist stress and shock more than fragile things. Still, they do not benefit from shocks or stress.

However, a box with antifragile items does not indicate that it should be labeled 'handle roughly,' but it must be handled with care. The term antifragility, as defined by Nassim Taleb, describes the items that tolerate hostile environments and benefit from shock because when the objects are under pressure, they become better rather than worse. As I was watching the video, I came up with an example of antifragility, which I saw in a movie about a beast and a superman. The beast was infragile because every time the superman sliced one of the beast's head, the head grew back into two heads. This means that the beast became stronger after being hurt; hence, antifragility.

I have also learned that antifragile systems have various fragile parts. A system ought to be fragile in almost all of its elements for it to be antifragile. An example of an antifragile system with many fragile parts is the evolutionary process. A human being is always evolving from the ancestors, and they inherit robust genetic features to succeed and survive. Nevertheless, animals and human beings end up dying very easily, but the evolution process is antifragile because, as time passes, species get stronger to survive. This indicates that for an antifragile system to occur, fragile parts should be available. This is because the success and failure of fragile parts is a vital f for the antifragile system and enables it to survive in hostile circumstances. I agree with Nassim that complexity might be produced from the smallest changes made in the initial situations. However, the solutions that can evolve must be selected for a beneficial task. Commonly, people tend to move out of small stressors, although they lose some of their resources, time, and energy in those situations.

Additionally, Nassim Taleb clearly states that antifragile items function well due to the additional capacity that is exerted under stress. The question of how antifragility operates, I thought of the act of going to the gym. People in the gym lift heavy objects, and after feeling the burn, then they only do one more lift, and that is when the growth occurs. The system detects the failure after the tissues in the muscles break down; hence, the person cannot lift any more objects. Future success is ensured by overcompensating the body with shock to build additional capacity that can handle more shock in a better way. As an individual sleeps, the muscle is regenerated, and get stronger to handle new shocks and stresses. Our bodies are very effective but inefficient when excess capacity is added. However, in the antifragility case, our bodies rebuild for future preparations in case of emergencies and extreme circumstances. People who exercise frequently become more durable in the long run because the level of vigorousness is raised; hence, their muscles can accommodate more stress.

In the video, Kahneman is importantly asserting that our minds are fragile because they are affected by small shocks and stresses, such as small losses that occur in everyday routines. But all the complex systems, which have evolved with time, are necessarily antifragile, and people's minds ought to be included. I think that people hate even small stressors because they tend to avoid, although it is not wise to avoid. The idea of antifragility indicates that if people try harder, they have the possibility of getting more solutions to stressors.

I was very impressed by Taleb's point about acceleration to describe the idea of fragility. The concept indicates that all systems require exercises to maintain fitness and prevent uncertainty. However, as states by Kahneman, the majority of individuals prefer constancy than pursuing certainty because few people prefer pain to retain their sharpness. I think that complexity is caused by fragility, and extendibility enables an extensive system to be less complicated. For instance, the internet is complex, and it can develop enormously and lack to break its principles.

Conclusion

Investment bankers and policymakers need to learn about antifragility because it provides an in-depth insight into the way an economy functions. Also, though it is emotionally hard, it is vital to adapt antifragility in our lifestyles, we ought to learn to appreciate a few struggling to succeed. Being antifragile is enjoying the little things we have in a general way to avoid emotional downfall due to stressors surrounding us. If an individual is building a skyscraper, it is advisable to make it antifragile by making it flexible and soft rather than robust. This prevents it from collapsing in case of external shocks or stress, such as an earthquake. Consequently, people should establish antifragile organizations and institutions so that they do not fall apart due to economic stressors.