How to become antifragile has been a topic I’ve explored since before I had even heard of the term. I was 14 when a friend who had been hitting the gym showed me his biceps. I was impressed because what 14-year old kid doesn’t want big biceps? I started hitting the weights with my buddy. All I wanted was some big muscles to impress folks but little did I know that was my start down the road to antifragility. But I’m jumping ahead.
It wasn’t until I read Nassim Taleb’s book Antifragile a few years back that this idea of antifragility crystallized and began to shape a lot of my thoughts and life.
It’s hard to overstate the importance this book has had on my life. In fact, the concept of being a practitioner, which I learned about in the book, is so important to me that I knew I wanted to incorporate it somehow into the title of this Blog.
A practitioner walks the walk. They are about action, not words. They are authentic because they practice what they preach. They eat their own cooking as Nassim says.
The idea of a practitioner is one of many things touched on in this book and it’s a concept I’ll surely explore more in another post. But today the focus is on the idea of antifragility.
What is Antifragility?
Nassim Taleb starts the book saying, “wind extinguishes a candle and energizes fire.” The point is that wind represents volatility, stress, and uncertainty. And this volatility, stress, and uncertainty can cause loss to some things (fragility) yet it can strengthen others (antifragility). And this, in a nutshell, is what antifragility is all about.
Antifragility is simply the opposite of fragility. While fragility is what loses from volatility, stress and uncertainty, antifragility is what gains/benefits from the same volatility, stress and uncertainty. Where fragility wants tranquility, antifragility wants disorder in order to grow.
Muscles are antifragile. When exposed to volatility and stressors, like lifting weights, the muscles grow stronger. A glass plate on the other hand is fragile. When exposed to volatility and stressors, like being dropped, it breaks.
Why being Antifragile is Important
A central tenet of the book and the concept of antifragility is that it’s hard to predict what is going to happen in life. If you need any proof of this just look at 2020. No matter the number of “experts” we see on TV, predicting harmful events is pretty tough to do and ultimately just plain impossible.
This seems like bad news right? Don’t we all just want someone to tell us what bad things are going to happen so we can be prepared? Yes, we do! But unfortunately that’s not possible. However, we do still have control of our fate.
How do we have control? Well, it’s relatively simple to determine what is fragile. Being $100,000 in credit card debt means you’re probably pretty fragile from an economic standpoint. Binging cigarettes and monster energy drinks everyday would probably make your metabolic health pretty fragile. You wouldn’t build a paper house directly in the path of a tornado. And if we can determine what is fragile, we can work to make those things less fragile or in some cases antifragile.
As Nassim Taleb says in the book; “Not seeing a tsunami or an economic event coming is excusable; building something fragile to them is not.”
How does this apply to us? Well, while we can’t predict what harmful events may occur, if we can make ourselves antifragile then when those harmful events do occur we can at worst not be harmed and at best grow even stronger.
We see this with hurricanes. If you visit the coast in Galveston, TX you’ll notice that the houses are built 15-20 feet in the air on stilts. While hurricanes can somewhat be predicted on short notice, they can not be predicted in enough advance to completely allow someone to protect a house in the path of a hurricane that was built on the ground. With that fragility recognized, the people living on the coast in Galveston determined that the best course of action would be to build their houses on stilts so when a hurricane hits and the waters rise, their houses will be much more protected from damage than if they had been built on the ground. These houses are not necessarily antifragile, they aren’t getting stronger from a hurricane even if they are on these stilts, but they are much LESS fragile and more robust.
You also see this with the human body. Again, you can’t predict all harmful events like cancer or a pandemic but we can work to make ourselves more protective against these harmful events and thus more antifragile. We can get in shape, build more muscle, and improve our metabolic and mental health.
There are studies showing that having less muscle mass is predictive for a worse recovery after injury or surgery. There are also studies showing exercise having a positive impact on our mental health. But it doesn’t take a study to know we feel great after a good workout. And it doesn’t take a study to think that having more muscle mass can help us recover from an injury or surgery.
And while there are certainly anomalies, as we continue to fight through COVID it seems that how healthy or not healthy a person is prior to getting COVID plays a large factor in how they fare with the illness. Those who are metabolically less healthy or already fighting another disease tend to be impacted far greater than those who are healthy.
So whether it’s surgery or an illness, being antifragile may help one weather the storm.
How to become Antifragile
There are many things one can do in their lives to make themselves antifragile. I’ve incorporated a number of them over the years. Some have stuck and some haven’t but the ones that have stuck have had a profound impact on my quality of life. Not only do I feel more prepared to handle volatility, be it physical or emotional, but it makes my everyday life just plain better.
I lift weights to build muscle which makes me more antifragile to surgeries, illness etc. But the workouts to build these muscles have a profound impact on my mental health making my daily life much more enjoyable and positive. It’s a win for the present and the future…a win-win!
I’ve separated the steps I’ve taken into two categories. They are the physical and the mental. To me though, our bodies and minds are interconnected and what affects one affects the other. So in actuality I don’t think of them as separate but for the sake of a blog I thought it’d simplify them if I broke them out that way.
Things I do to become Antifragile
Physical
Exercise/Movement
Our physical bodies are the physical vessel that carry us through this life. We’re stuck with them whether we like them or not for all our time on earth. So why wouldn’t we want them in top-performing shape?
The stronger we are physically, the more we can withstand what is thrown at us. This is not only true in the physical sense like overcoming an illness or recovering from an accident or surgery, but it’s also true in the mental and emotional sense. Exercise and movement undoubtedly strengthen our mental and emotional health as well.
I haven’t written about my specific workout plan but for me, lifting weights has been the most valuable component of it. Historically I’ve followed a linear progression plan for basic lifts with the goal of getting stronger. If I get bigger muscles along the way, great. While “linear progression” sounds complex, it really just means adding a few pounds or reps week after week, year after year to my weightlifting exercises. Linear just means, “arranged in or extending along a straight or nearly straight line.”
So if I squatted 150 pounds this week for 10 reps, next week I’d try 155 pounds for 10 reps. If I keep adding weight when I hit 10 reps, progressing in a linear fashion, then someday I’ll be lifting 275 pounds for 10 reps. I’d be stronger and hopefully more antifragile.
Outside of lifting weights, I love CrossFit, gymnastics, and playing sports.
Some great resources I’ve used over the years to learn about exercise and movement are: Starting Strength, crossfit.com, and ido portal.
Nutrition
I eat mostly real food, and not too much. For me, what I eat has as much, if not the most, impact on my physical health.
I’ve tried all the “diets” out there. Whole 30, Paleo, Keto, low-fat, etc. I’ve thought carbs were the enemy. I’ve thought calories were the enemy. I don’t tell people how they should eat. As a practitioner, I can only tell you what works for me. Now, what works for me might work for others as well. Who knows. But right now, I don’t think I exclusively fall into any one of these diet idealogies listed above. I don’t “identify” as one type of eater. I think I’ve settled into a healthy mixture of all of them; at least in terms of what works for me. The basic tenets I abide by are:
1. Protein is the star – I tend to plan around quality protein and fill in with fats and carbs.
For me, quality protein consists of unprocessed red meat (ground beef, steaks, roasts), chicken, fish, eggs, pork, and some full fat dairy like plain greek yogurt or quality cheese.
2. Stick to whole foods – I focus on whole, real foods like meat, eggs, cheese, nuts, seeds, potatoes, fruit and vegetables. Processed foods that are not “whole” like chips, pretzels, bread, etc. are hyper-palatable and are much easier to cause me to overeat.
As I heard once and it rang true, how easy is it to eat an entire bag of chips when you initially just wanted a few? I mean, “I bet you can’t eat just one,” was a tag line back in the day for Lay’s potato chips.
But does this same thing happen with eggs? You eat two and the next thing you know you’ve finished off the entire dozen? NO! That doesn’t happen with real food!
3. Meal Prep – I’ve written in depth on this before. To me it’s one of the most important lifestyle habits I have that has helped me become antifragile. I’ve said this many times, “as my meal prep goes so goes my week.” Meaning, if I prep my meals on the weekend I tend to have a good week.
4. Cook – LEARN TO COOK! Even in this day and age with much more options out there, it’s still not easy to eat healthy away from home. While it’s doable, the healthy choices are still heavily outnumbered by the unhealthy.
This doesn’t have to be complicated or time-consuming. If you can cook eggs and meat, roast veggies, bake potatoes, and wash fruit you’ll be in good shape. Being able to do these accounts for most of the meals I eat. And when I try something fancy, luckily I have YouTube to show me how. And the secret to cooking meat is to NOT OVER COOK IT! So get a good meat thermometer like this one.
I want to speak some specifically on dieting for weight loss. I admittedly have never had to really diet to lose weight. So because I pride myself on being a practitioner and speaking only about what I practice, I can’t talk much about dieting to lose weight. But, I have been around a lot of people who have and some good resources out there are Working Against Gravity and Layne Norton.
The nutrition field is CROWDED to say the least. Here are some folks I’ve found incredibly helpful over the years. Robb Wolf, Mark Sisson, Layne Norton.
Sleep
The mantra used to be “I’ll sleep when I’m dead.”
People wore their lack of sleep like a badge of honor. “I have too much to do to sleep.” Sleep was almost viewed as a weakness. I think thankfully we’ve turned the corner on this absurd thinking. Sleep is important! It’s critical to being healthy both physically and mentally. While I don’t always get eight hours of sleep a night, I do value sleep and generally get enough to feel refreshed most days.
Here are some of the things I’ve incorporated to get a good nights sleep:
- Be Tired – I’m sure this seems too obvious…but then again simplicity works. The best thing I can do to get a good night’s sleep is to be tired. When I get up early, have a productive day, am active physically and mentally, and get in bed with a clear conscience and am tired I tend to sleep great. Conversely, when I get up late and do nothing the entire day and try getting to be early and am wide awake then I obviously don’t sleep great.
- Lay off the caffeine – I LOVE coffee! I literally go to bed and think about how much I can’t wait to have that first cup in the morning. But I realized that if I drank coffee too late in the day it absolutely impacted my ability to fall asleep. I have no idea how long caffeine stays in your bloodstream but I generally don’t drink caffeine past noon.
- Ease up on alcohol – I used to drink a few glasses of wine a night. I love wine but I realized that even a few glasses of wine impacted my quality of sleep. It may help me fall asleep but I definitely am more restless throughout the night. So a few years back I generally cut out the few glasses of wine per night on the week nights. I save my alcohol consumption for the weekend. If I don’t sleep as well then, oh well.
- No TV in the bedroom – much to my wife’s chagrin, I REFUSE to have a TV in the bedroom. I can’t cite a study, but I’ve seen enough out there that watching TV before bed can impact sleep quality and I know I sleep better when I don’t watch TV in bed.
- Read – I absolutely have to read before I go to bed. It’s how I unwind. And I generally have to read what I call mindless entertainment. I save the deep, thought-provoking reading for the morning. At night, I want my mind to unwind and a good thriller or mystery usually does the trick. In fact, it usually works so well that I often have to go back and re-read the last few pages I read the night before to remember what was going on.
- STAY OFF THE PHONE – I think it’s safe to say the phone can get all of us worked up. Whether it’s through social media or the news, it generally gets the heart racing. And that’s the last thing I want when I close my eyes. So I make it a rule not to look at my phone once I get in bed. And when I break that rule, which I sometimes do, it almost always leads me down a rabbit hole I don’t want to go before bed and usually leads to me NOT being able to go to sleep.
- For years I’ve wanted to get an alarm clock so I could put my phone in another room to charge at night thus reducing my ability to succomb to the allure of the phone and look at it in bed. I haven’t done this yet but it’s something I should do.
Mental
Reading
I read, a LOT! If I ever won the lottery I’d probably spend half my day just reading. I read all sorts of things; fiction and non-fiction. I read thrillers, mysteries, philosophy, motivational books, self-help books, history books, tales, fables, etc.
To me, reading is like exercise for the mind. If it wasn’t for reading I never would have discovered Nassim Taleb. If I had never discovered Nassim Taleb I wouldn’t have discovered the ideas of antifragility and of being a practitioner. Without discovering those I wouldn’t be writing this today! I read before bed and I read first thing in the morning when I get up before the rest of the house to have a cup of coffee.
Philosophy
Philosophy has a bad rap. I know I used to think of it as a waste of time. Something people with too much time did. People pondering ridiculous ideas and concepts that had no direct relevance to real life. But then I discovered Stoicism.
Stoicism is a form of philosophy that is not some abstract thing. It is literally a guide for how to live a good life. It is meant to be implemented; to be practiced. It coincides perfectly with the idea of antifragility. One of my favorite concepts of stoicism comes from Epictetus: “If someone succeeds in provoking you, realize that your mind is complicit in the provocation.” Talk about true ownership and personal accountability!
I’m not an expert on Stoicism. To learn more about it, which I HIGHLY recommend, check out Ryan Holiday.
Family/Friends
Being with friends and family is good for the soul. There is nothing more uplifting than loving others and being loved. And being part of a support system and having a strong support system allows for a foundation that can weather any storm. Without that foundation, I’m not sure how one could truly be antifragile.
Stillness
While I don’t technically meditate, I do practice stillness often. I think being still and just allowing ourselves time to think and reflect are critical to being antifragile. Without stillness, I don’t see how we could be proactive in our lives versus reactive. There is so much external noise coming at us that for me it would be impossible to forge my own path if I didn’t step out of that noise to think for myself. Otherwise I’d just get caught up in the external noise and be reactionary.
I practice stillness throughout the day but it always starts in the morning. With kids it’s hard to find time for stillness so a few years ago I made a habit of getting up early so I could get 30-45 minutes by myself in a house that’s quiet. It’s time I cherish and without it I don’t think I’d be where I am today.
It’s also important to grab those spare minutes for some stillness when they present themselves throughout the day. Maybe it’s sitting in the carpool line for 10 minutes before school pick up. Set down the phone, turn off the radio, roll down the windows if it’s a nice day and just sit there for a few minutes in your own thoughts. I try to grab a few minutes here and there like this as often as possible. It’s amazing how great it feels sometimes to just turn it all off and sit in my own thoughts.
Finances
First, I learned to want less. We want so much stuff! Then when we get it, there’s an initial surge of happiness but eventually that wears off. You buy a house, WOW, but eventually it’s just your house. Then you want a better house. But if you got that house the same thing would happen. You’d be happy, amazed even, “I can’t believe I get to live here.” That feeling would wear off and eventually you’d want a new house. This is the Treadmill Effect. A cycle of just wanting more.
Get out of debt! Debt strangles us.
Do we own the things we purchase or do they own us?
While acute stress is good for antifragility, chronic stress is not. And being in debt is a constant stress hanging over us. As Nassim Taleb says, “much of modern life is preventable chronic stress injury.” Fragile things are vulnerable to volatility. Being in debt makes one vulnerable to volatility. Lose your job, enter a recession, have a bad sales month, etc.
This step can be hard. I know it is for me. Sometimes I falter and we spend a little too much and we have to back off some.
A weekly 10-minute finance check-in with my wife has helped immensely to counter the drift into debt.
Addition versus Subtraction for Antifragility
We live in a world that is now dominated by lifehacks.
Take this pill for this. Add this obscure food to your diet for this mineral I’ve never heard of. For sleep take this concoction. Spend one hour doing these special joint manipulations to ensure all ten toes are ready for your workout. Put this on your face for glowing skin. Buy this special oil to help you sleep and buy that special oil to calm you down. Do these twenty things every morning for the optimal morning routine. Add this to your life. Add that. Keep on adding things! More, more, more!
Who says more is better?!?!
We are complex individuals full of interdependencies. What I eat can impact what I feel. What I’m thinking can impact my physical health. But just because we are complex does not mean we require complex systems. If that were the case how in the world did we survive before all these hacks existed? If all these additions are necessary, why do no other species need so many?
It’s crazy how much of the “health and wellness” industry is about adding products to our life.
What about removing stuff? Or, Via Negativa as Nassim calls it in the book. How much better do we feel when we clean our car and remove all the clutter? I just got my car detailed for the first time in years the other day. It was a MESS! The moment I got in it after it was clean I just felt better. Less anxious.
Removing clutter/harmful stuff can have just as much of a positive impact, if not more, than adding stuff. But nobody wants to admit that because you can’t sell removing harmful stuff to people. At least it’s much more difficult than selling a pill or new life hack.
While we are complex beings, it does not mean we require all sorts of complex, sophisticated inputs. Simple is often best. So often the answer lies in simplifying. Removing unnecessary stuff.
We can work towards becoming antifragile by removing harmful things from our lives. As Nassim says, and I agree with:
“The good is mostly in the absence of bad.”
So becoming antifragle is as much about removing harmful stuff as it is in adding positive things. Alcohol, drugs, negative people, social media, tobacco, etc. Remove these things! This is the simplest, and fastest way, one can get started on becoming more antifragile.
A lot of what I have done to become antifragile mentioned above was removing things from my life. Alcohol, afternoon coffee, TV in my bedroom, external noise, etc.
While I haven’t removed social media from my life, there have been times where I’ve gone weeks or a month without it and it’s always amazing how much better I feel mentally. It’s undeniable that the removal of it has a profoundly positive impact on my life! The fact that I always reincorporate it back in shows how addictive these companies make their platforms and how hard it is to remove.
Things I’d like to Incorporate
I’ve touched on the basics I use to build a strong foundation for my own antifragility. These basics center around my physical and mental well-being and the biggest impactors of those have been centered on what I eat, how I move, getting sleep, reading, finding stillness, and surrounding myself with family and friends.
But there are some things I’d like to add. Now, I realize I just spoke about not always adding things and here I am talking about more things to add to my life. The reality is, I feel like these are ancillary. They are secondary to the basics I’ve touched on. They are the supporting cast while the above basics are the stars.
Maybe these are the things that can get me that last ounce or two of antifragility. Maybe not. Sometimes it’s just fun to try new things!
Sauna
I’ve heard so many accounts of benefits people have experienced from spending consistent time in a sauna. I’ve even heard that consistent use of a sauna may have benefits that mirror cardiovascular exercise. Who knows if that’s the case but I do know lots of people say they just feel great after incorporating it. I’d love to give it a shot but I don’t have access to a sauna that I could use consistently enough.
Cold Water Immersion
Much like the sauna, I’ve also heard so many people tout the benefits of cold water immersion and how great they feel afterwards. I could definitely try this by putting my shower on full cold for a few minutes a day but I haven’t worked up the nerve to do so.
Meditation
Walks/Nature
Nassim talks a lot about things that have been around for a long time. If something has survived thousands of years there must be something to it. And taking walks, being in nature, have certainly been used in ancient practices, religions, and by many historical people. I know when I go on a ten minute walk in the evening with my wife I feel fantastic afterwards.
Being more charitable
My high school motto was, “Men for Others.” I truly believe one of the best things we can do is to give to others. With children and obligations this has taken a back seat but it’s at the top of my priority list moving forward.
Fasting
Fasting is all the rage now. But fasting has been around for thousands of years. It’s worked it’s way into the fabric of many cultures through religious and cultural practices. And if something has been around for that long, there must be something to it.
While it’s current popularity is as a weight loss tool, I am more interested in using it as a development and growth tool. I think it’s important to practice being uncomfortable and working through struggle. It teaches us discipline. And being hungry is certainly uncomfortable. I’ve done some fasting but I’d like to incorporate it on a monthly basis.
Removal of Social Media
No need to say much on this. Most of us would probably agree that we’d be a lot happier if we removed this from our lives.
Conclusion
I don’t have it all figured out. That’s for sure.
I worry, have stress, and don’t always react how I’d like to. I don’t even follow all of the things I’ve written about 100% of the time. Sometimes I eat like crap. Sometimes I drink too much and get a shitty night’s sleep. Sometimes I find my mind wandering to all the material things I want. That’s why these are daily practices! That’s why I have to be proactive about making them happen.
I don’t wake up and think they’ll just happen on their own. Just like we have to brush our teeth daily, I have to make an effort to implement these things, or keep certain things removed, on a daily basis.
I do this through being conscientious about them. I spend time in stillness thinking about them and why I do them. I plan for them. For example, I spend 10 minutes every Sunday with my wife talking about our finances. Without this simple practice we’ve found we have a tendency to spend more thus getting the credit card bill higher and eventually piling up some debt.
Building habits around these principles has also been crucial to keeping them front-and-center in my daily life. I’ve mentioned before but one of the best resources I’ve found for building habits is Atomic Habits. The author, James Clear, has a great BLOG that expands on the points he outlines in the book.
To me, being antifragile, does not make me indestructible. In fact, it may not protect me from everything life may throw at me. But I do know that the more antifragile I am, the more I’ll be able to handle.
Nassim says, “Everything gains or loses from volatility. Fragility is what loses from volatility and uncertainty.” That means antifragility is what gains from it.
The wind is volatility. It can extinguish a candle but it also can energize a fire. I’m trying to be like the fire. How about you?