---
title: Antifragility
url: 'https://tonypiper.coach/articles/antifragility'
date: '2023-01-20'
updated: '2024-12-04'
author: 'Tony Piper'
description: 'Discover antifragility: the secret to thriving under pressure. Learn why becoming stronger through volatility transforms how you handle challenges.'
tags:
  - 'Ship 30 for 30 2023'
  - Mindset
  - 'Personal Growth'
---



# Antifragility

By Tony Piper,  January 20, 2023 •  [Ship 30 for 30 2023](https://tonypiper.coach/tags/ship-30-for-30-2023) [Mindset](https://tonypiper.coach/tags/mindset) [Personal Growth](https://tonypiper.coach/tags/personal-growth) 

There's no word for the true opposite of fragile. And yet the concept is the secret to thriving in life whatever comes our way.

**Fragility refers to something becoming weaker when it's exposed to volatility.**

An egg can cope with a lot of jostling in a nest under the body of a parent bird. But when exposed to the tap of a teaspoon, it becomes weaker.

If something doesn't become weaker when exposed to volatility, most people would describe it as something like "strong" or "resilient".

**But the true opposite of fragile is when something becomes stronger when exposed to volatility.**

And, curiously, there's no commonly-used word for it. So let's use the word coined by Nassim Nicholas Taleb - **"anti-fragile"**.

So what has this got to do with thriving in life?

**Our biggest fears are not that something bad will happen to us, but rather that we couldn't handle it if it did.**

Consequently, most of us do everything we can to reduce our exposure to volatility and the chances of something bad happening. As a result we forget that we can actually cope with volatility.

But if we can be anti-fragile and become stronger when exposed to volatility, we won't care so much about bad things happening.

**The more we create positive experiences of coping well with volatility - of not making a drama out of a crisis - the more we will realise that we can handle much more than we ever imagined. Because that's just how we're built.**