The concept of anti-fragility seems to be often confused with the concept of robustness (something Taleb pointed out specifically[1]). Of the practices you recommend here, I would have liked to see more discussion on why you think these particular values/practices result in a better culture during the stress of high-growth periods. If the culture is merely preserved, those would be robust values.
I can’t speak to your specific experience at Wave, but it seems like the value of feedback for everything could plausibly be antifragile—the rate and value of feedback seems likely to increase during periods of greater stress. However, others could actually be fragilefor example, thefire-fastprinciple applied during high-stress periods may result in an overabundance of “volatile” over “stable” performers, to borrow lingo I first learned from Matt Blodgett[2], reducing the orgs ability to consolidate gains and eliminate technical debt.
“Antifragility is beyond resilience or robustness. The resilient resists shocks and stays the same; the antifragile gets better.”—Nassim Nicholas Taleb (2012). Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder. Random House. p. 430.
The concept of anti-fragility seems to be often confused with the concept of robustness (something Taleb pointed out specifically[1]). Of the practices you recommend here, I would have liked to see more discussion on why you think these particular values/practices result in a better culture during the stress of high-growth periods. If the culture is merely preserved, those would be robust values.
I can’t speak to your specific experience at Wave, but it seems like the value of feedback for everything could plausibly be antifragile—the rate and value of feedback seems likely to increase during periods of greater stress. However, others could actually be fragile for example, the fire-fast principle applied during high-stress periods may result in an overabundance of “volatile” over “stable” performers, to borrow lingo I first learned from Matt Blodgett[2], reducing the orgs ability to consolidate gains and eliminate technical debt.
“Antifragility is beyond resilience or robustness. The resilient resists shocks and stays the same; the antifragile gets better.”—Nassim Nicholas Taleb (2012). Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder. Random House. p. 430.
https://www.mattblodgett.com/2024/11/are-you-stable-or-volatile.html