Don't bend until you break: Be anti-fragile

The fragile wants tranquility, the antifragile grows from disorder, and the robust doesn't care too much.

- Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Disclaimer: I cannot take credit for any of the things I talk about here; they are the brainchild of Nassim Nicholas Taleb, the author of Antifragile: The Gain From Disorder, and wise words from one of the Deans of Students at my university.

My medical school class had a wonderful lecture today on the concept of "anti-fragility".

What is antifragility? Well, it is now something I hope to accomplish in my time in medical school. The concept is meant to be the opposite of fragile, as one can expect from the "anti" preceding the word. So, how you would define antifragile?

Well, if fragility is defined as breaking under pressure, doesn't antifragility mean no breaking? If a glass is fragile, because if you squeeze it, it shatters; then antifragile should just be no shattering, no glass on the floor... right?

Not necessarily.

What we typically think of when we think "not fragile" is resilience. Resilience is the ability to not crack under pressure, and if you do, return right back to how you were before. It's akin to a perfect rubber band that always comes back, or a cloth that can be squished, but always ends up the same size in the end. It is the rebound, or bounce back, right to where you were before. This is a great skill to have, and many people credit their successes to their being resilient; being able to handle whatever life throws at them and not get knocked down.

So, what is antifragility?

Well, now that I've learned about it, I would call it the perfect state. It's the best way to deal with stress, with negativity, with hardships. It's being anti-breakable and not shattering. It's not only tough, it's also expansion. It's being more.

Think of antifragility like working out a muscle. You put strain and weight and force on it, and what does it do?

It becomes more.

That's what the concept of antifragility wants from you: to take the negativity, the stress, the sadness and hard days, and make them better. Make the more. Grow from them.

Not only are you being resilient and bouncing back to where you were, you are surpassing your past self, and becoming better than you were before.

In the medical profession, this is so necessary. How else do we expect to learn from our mistakes, face losing patients, or see 6 urgent cases in a short time span? We have to not only bounce back, we have to exceed the past, and learn from our mistakes. We have to be optimistic, strong and steady. We have to deal with pressure and guilt, but we can't let it eat away at our souls. So, what do we do?

We become antifragile, and we grow. So, my lovely friends and followers, go grow.