Reading Time: 2 Minutes
What’s up everyone!
How’s our weekends coming along?
A big hello to our Northern hemisphere cousins – hoping that you guys are enjoying the Northern Summer as it sl-ow-ly creeps along, don’t worry – it’ll get there!
Meanwhile, yours truly experienced a very rare event last night…
We went to “take in a show” at the iconic Sydney Opera House.
Well, rather we went to support MrsFrugalSamurai’s Mum as she performed as part of the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs.

I quite enjoyed myself surprisingly, chiefly because my own singing voice has oft been compared to a duck not having a good time.
MrsFrugalSamurai has always said she builds up her resilience levels whenever I belt out a rustic tune, but some people just don’t recognize talent y’know.
Resilience…resilience… where was I going with this… hmm… Oh yeah.
I’ve been reading a fair bit of Nassim Taleb in recent months and wanted to share with you all a couple of interesting learnings.
Who’s Nassim you ask?
He’s the guy that wrote “The Black Swan” right before the GFC and went on to make a stack of money during it, chiefly on that exact premise – which is basically “an event or occurrence that deviates beyond what is normally expected of a situation and is extremely difficult to predict. Black swan events are typically random and unexpected”.
Mind you, he was a very successful Wall Street Trader for over 20 years prior to this and subsequently has turned into a leading thinker, author and professor – chiefly around risk in an investment context.

Reading his works, I realized that a lot of what he states can be applied to real-life as well.
Here, take an example:
The way Nassim sees it, humans come in three different types: fragile, robust, or anti-fragile.
The fragile seek to avoid risk of any sort and to shield themselves from life and all the potential ups and downs. They want to contain themselves in a safe and comfortable environment 24/7/365.
Think the guy who was born, raised, married and lived in the same town for his entire life, never once venturing out of a 10km radius… never once being exposed to anything that will lead him to grow or experience the ripest fruits life has to offer.
Then there are the robust, who, like great oak trees, stand resolute and firm in the face of messiness. The volatility and constant change never affects them. They keep a flat line all through the journey, never once deviating from their course, no matter what happens.
Whilst there’s much to admire about robustness, an issue may be that they are TOO strong, TOO rigid. When change and evolution is all round, they are too attached to the “old ways”.
(Some names that come to mind when I read this were, Kodak, Nokia, Sears…have a read of them).
And finally, the anti-fragile.
These are whom actively engage with the gamut of what life has to offer, both good and bad – to learn and become more creative and resilient in the face of change.
They learn lessons through the various challenges and complexities and as a result, grow.
Think about the muscles and bones of weightlifters, which get stronger as more and more weights are applied through time.

Pretty cool right? Now there’s some food for thought on a Sunday afternoon… which one are you?
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34 Comments
You, Me and Benny
I have never heard of this before!! I don’t honestly know which I would be – so I am going to have to google more about it and report back!
The Frugal Samurai
Looking forward to that report, glad to get those brain neurons firing!
Michele @ ourredonkulouslife
This is such a good post. So Interesting. Reading the descriptions, I thought of myself being robust, but I really think over the past 15 years or so I have become Anti-fragile. I learn from all experiences I have and think to myself how does this or can this make me a better person. I want to go from my experiences, not just be there for them and I definitely dont want to have no experiences to talk about. That sounds so boring. 🙁 I want everyone to experience life and enjoy everything is has to offer the highs with the lows. Love this post so much!
The Frugal Samurai
Thank you Michele for commenting and for saying so! Yeah life’s like that sometimes, but REALLY good to hear you’ve evolved from all those experiences – would love to hear about them one day!
saygoodbyecitylife
Great post. Thought provoking. I appreciate your ideas.
The Frugal Samurai
Thank you for reading and for commenting!
D'ondra Howard
I would say I am a mixture of robust & anti-fragile. When things get messy, I try to stand firm, but also know I need to roll with the punches.
The Frugal Samurai
That’s how it should be right! Stay strong and roll with it, kudos to you methinks.
Haroon Ejaz
Very nice post I never heard of such things before. Thanks for sharing!
The Frugal Samurai
No, thank you for reading!
Luna S
What a cool experience you were able to attend! I would love to visit the Sydney Opera house some day.
The Frugal Samurai
Yeah it is tre cool!!! A rare occasion to venture inside, well worth it!
Junell DuBois
I have never heard of this before. Very interesting. I’ll have to research more about it.
The Frugal Samurai
Please do! Happy to share, thanks for reading.
Cendu Param
I thought this was such a cool read! I’ve never heard these terms before but I would like to think I’m anti-fragile, I love the ups and downs of life and think I handle both pretty well.
The Frugal Samurai
Great to hear! So important to just roll with things as they come, very jelly of you – I’m more of a stable kinda guy, don’t deal with change that greatly…
Giraffee @nurseryrhymesgirl.com
Hey yes I enjoyed reading it 🙂 Thanks for teaching me something new. I never knew about this before.Happy blogging!!!!! 🙂
The Frugal Samurai
Thank you for reading it and your kind words – keep up with your blog too!
Ara Patria
Wow! This is amazing. In my case, I could say that I am a fragile person. I tend to be very emotional especially when things aren’t going my way. Hehe, thanks for sharing this!
The Frugal Samurai
No problem and thanks for sharing – hopefully most things do go your way!
blair villanueva
Maybe I am a mixture of these three! Why choose if I can be all 😀
The Frugal Samurai
Hahahaha, well played!
monidipa51
I never heard of his works but after reading the descriptions, I’d like to check it out!
The Frugal Samurai
Please do, hope you take something away from it!
Sanjota Purohit
It made me to think what am I. I guess I’m robust 😀
The Frugal Samurai
Great to see!
Puja
Quite a thought provoking post. I liked reading your perspective. Thanks for sharing!
The Frugal Samurai
No problem, thanks for reading! Hope you’ve enjoyed it.
Yonnah M
I think that I’m more robust. I’ve had anti-fragile moments or been in situations where I felt like that. This was a very interesting post. Really made me analyze myself
The Frugal Samurai
Thanks for reading, it is a bit thought provoking aye!
Craige
Really insightful post
The Frugal Samurai
No problem thanks for reading!
Kendall Delayne Fueled by Caffeine and Cuss Words
I would consider myself anti-fragile and my husband is robust. Such a good read. Never heard of this before but so cool to know!
The Frugal Samurai
Thank you for saying so… haha your husband is robust – most husbands are!