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> Antifragile: what doesn't kill you makes you stronger No, you've missed the point of the book (or haven't read it). It's about that some things become better

> Antifragile: what doesn't kill you makes you stronger No, you've missed the point of the book (or haven't read it). It's about that some things become better in the presence of error/noise/damage/volatility. But not all things, some other, fragile things, become worse and worse as damage accumulates. And that there's no word for such a property, so he calls it "Antifragile". And then the book goes in great detail about lots and lots of examples (with the usual rambling).

hogFeast 5y ago
The word is the Lindy effect.
- anthony_r 5y ago
  No, that's only one example. Or rather a simple pattern for how to spot some antifragility in the wild (has it been around for a long time? well then it's likely antifragile). Consider a portfolio of out of the money options, with some short closer to the money options to "collect premium". This is how Taleb made good amount of his money while trading options back in the day (I personally call such setups "a Taleb trade"). He himself describes it as "trades that make little money on small moves, lose medium amounts on medium moves, win a lot on big moves". But this has absolutely nothing to do with Lindy. A Lindy "trade" would be something like hoarding gold. It's been around for sooooooo long.
zsmi 5y ago
> become worse and worse as damage accumulates. And that there's no word for such a property I think the name for that property is "age". :) Do you have an example of something that gets better in the presence of accumulated damage? Maybe giving something the "weathered" look on purpose? I can really only think of subjective examples. Things that get worse with accumulated damage definitely abound in physics. One example that came immediately to mind. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot-carrier_injection https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot-carrier_injection
- pixl97 5y ago
  Individually DNA is fragile. Collectively DNA reproduction has been antifragile and kept up a continuous chain of existence for at least 4 billion years.

hogFeast 5y ago

The word is the Lindy effect.

anthony_r 5y ago
No, that's only one example. Or rather a simple pattern for how to spot some antifragility in the wild (has it been around for a long time? well then it's likely antifragile). Consider a portfolio of out of the money options, with some short closer to the money options to "collect premium". This is how Taleb made good amount of his money while trading options back in the day (I personally call such setups "a Taleb trade"). He himself describes it as "trades that make little money on small moves, lose medium amounts on medium moves, win a lot on big moves". But this has absolutely nothing to do with Lindy. A Lindy "trade" would be something like hoarding gold. It's been around for sooooooo long.

zsmi 5y ago

> become worse and worse as damage accumulates. And that there's no word for such a property I think the name for that property is "age". :) Do you have an example of something that gets better in the presence of accumulated damage? Maybe giving something the "weathered" look on purpose? I can really only think of subjective examples. Things that get worse with accumulated damage definitely abound in physics. One example that came immediately to mind. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot-carrier_injection https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot-carrier_injection

pixl97 5y ago
Individually DNA is fragile. Collectively DNA reproduction has been antifragile and kept up a continuous chain of existence for at least 4 billion years.