How to master antifragility for a happier life | Jonathan Haidt, Derren Brown & more

You will suffer in life. But you don’t have to break down.
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‘Resilience’ is the idea of being able to withstand hardship. ‘Antifragility’ goes one step further. The term, first coined by author Nassim Taleb, describes systems or entities that don't just withstand adversity, but actually benefit and grow stronger from it.
In many ways, antifragility is central to our physical health and development. Bones, for example, get stronger when subjected to stress, and the immune system requires exposure to threats in order to develop properly.
We can also curate mental antifragility to enhance our lives, find happiness, and develop lifelong learning. From Jonathan Haidt to Derren Brown, this video explores the multitude of ways that we can think about antifragility, and how we can use it to better our lives.
Read the full video transcript: bigthink.com/the-well/antifra...
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[@asyouwish1143]

"The fact that you are participating in reality is enough " "You only change through suffering. Otherwise, why would you change?" I could not agree more with these statements. I try and remind myself daily what a gift life really is. Thank you for the great video!

[@The-Well]

Thanks so much for watching!

[@tonyburton419]

Yes, but you see it depends what suffering is being experienced. Take intense hurt - can segue into anger and then planned revenge. Cerainly a change - but for the better? Agree with the gratitude sentiment.

[@Kyra-fe6do]

I hope you are still enjoying ❤️✨ Need more friends with this mindset

[@ianwynne764]

A few months ago I sent an e-mail to Jonathan about something and he replied. He is a high class person.

[@The-Well]

This is so neat! He's such a cool guy!

[@marcy4287]

"Optimism, resourcefulness, memory loss." "Resist nothing." "Expectation are disappointments waiting to happen." Love this. Subscribing.❤

[@The-Well]

Welcome! Thanks for being here!

[@chrisbarry9345]

I'm in a BAD place and usually HATE this kind of stuff but this video was really helpful. Will be rewatching

[@randrothify]

As the saying goes, “pain is inevitable, suffering is optional.”

[@The-Well]

Adding this to our quote bank 💡

[@PolishBehemoth]

no... suffering is not optional.

[@amyholms5379]

@@PolishBehemothSuffering is a perspective. You can choose to see it as such or as a means of growth. You get to choose.

[@PolishBehemoth]

@@amyholms5379 lol tell that to people in torture camps or jail. "Suffering is optional, just think positive about ha ing no rights and starving to death".

[@Dobviews]

One stitch at a time, the fabric of our humanity is woven together. RNS

[@aka-zain]

A very interesting and a sort of tonic we need to learn on regular basis and practice. These terms should also be a part of curriculum at school and colleges. Appreciate your whole team for the efforts into making such innovative video. Looking forward to more of these! ❤

[@bakhshilloataev4662]

What a wonderful and really helpful video! Just in time. Thanks a lot!

[@BurnoutAnalytics]

Happiness etymologically relates to “happen,” as in happenstance, luck, chance. This notion that we can bottle up and guarantee that which belongs to the chaos of the Real is pure hubris. Deconstructing our narratives, expectations and fantasies about guaranteeing happiness can at least allow us to build a resilient emptiness, to have a chance at happiness by relativizing the unnecessary suffering caused by these imaginary narratives (“if I’m helpful/loyal/rich/strong/sexy, I’ll be happy”).

[@tonyburton419]

Very helpful basis for the video's content....." resilient emptiness" - (like it). Know little about Lacan, though.

[@robertgoode9824]

spot on. 10/10

[@_tnk_]

I would guess that Nassim Taleb would absolutely hate this video 😅

[@tonyburton419]

"You are goddamn right" (Walter White)

[@guerreirointegral-josevice2587]

Yeah! This video is about resilience. And resilience is, by definition, completely different from antifragility. The former means being able to suffer less damage from Black Swans, while the latter implies gaining benefits from them!

[@SpidermanInLondon]

Beautiful content. Keep it up!

[@The-Well]

Thank you so much! 💡

[@supersimon4922]

Memory loss is unnecessary, acceptance, what i think you mean here, is very important, forgetting leads to repeating the same mistake over and over, acceptance leads to moving forward, avoiding the pitfalls we've fallen through before, i disagree with your use of memory loss to describe this, because people who never learn from their mistakes may ruin themselves trying the same thing over and over to no avail

[@ronj9448]

I think you are confused with that part of the video. He's talking about forgetting an experience that happens to you and that you relive and try to resolve in your mind ("shackles" in the video). He says that you can never recapture those moments (a great point). So there is no sense in rumination.

[@nafeezkhaursar3467]

Mr Brown, fancy seeing you here

[@user-xd5js4wb4d]

That was beautiful thinking! Thanks. Schopenhauer would be proud.

[@sirborges]

But isn't Schopenhauer a pessimist? On a side note: I love your hair on this picture!

[@sunnyduck777]

Deeply inspiring video, thanks for your work.

[@The-Well]

Thank you for watching! We appreciate you!

[@jamieweeks2120]

Expectations are premeditated resentments

[@tonyburton419]

They were before these wise words, worth remembering.🙂

[@Krasbin]

Well, the term hormesis gets pretty close to antifragile. Hormesis is about facing stress, en strengthening in response to it. To my rather limited understanding.

[@The-Well]

Thanks for the new vocab word!

[@amyholms5379]

Also good. I don’t like to use words that start with anti because the imply a negative state instead of a positive one (though I love Taleb’s work). Resilience seems to incorporate the idea pretty well.

[@jenA9026]

Memory loss ... yep ... to feel powerful after feeling disempowered by someone I become "l'esprit de l'escalier" ... "the wit on the staircase" ... I.E. thinking of those zinger comebacks that I SHOULD / COULD have said. But in reality I'm just drinking the poison again and making myself unhappy.

[@munyac5309]

What is the difference between optimism and expectations. Are they not the same thing to an extent

[@rockerknight25]

Optimism is an framing of "it will turn out ok" but doesn't always have an answer for what form that "ok" will be. Expectations do, and thus when the final form deviates it leaves you with a disappointment.

[@The-Well]

Love this explanation! Very well said!

[@JrobAlmighty]

When I see Pete Holmes I usually laugh so it was like I clicked the wrong video at first lol

Nerd comment: Bessel van der Kolk, the "expert" on trauma, one of the main voices of the movement that want to scare everyone into fragility, loves an old rival of Freud: Pierre Janet. Janet was the first to study traumatic memory in terms that van der Kolk likes: as dissociation. One of the problems with this "expert", that percolates also the movement, is a weird cherrypicking of fragility, forgetting that the point 3 that Shaka Senghor promotes-to have memory loss, that is, to forget the inexistent things your mind keep thinking of- was one of Pierre Janet's main tools. He didn't want people to relieve their traumas and to make the unconscious conscious. He rather support people to forget those memories, robbing them of their hypnotic power, so that people could go on with their life and focus on their resources!

[@tonyburton419]

Interesting, and definitely not nerdy.

[@The-Well]

Please consider writing more nerd comments! They really make one think 🤔

[@tonyburton419]

@@The-Well Interesting, but trying to suppress or leave an unreconstructed memory meeting the criteria for PTSD is not going to stop the unwanted "symptoms" from occurring. Janet was wrong. DSMV PTSD diagnosis as what is being experienced is needed first, however.

[@clifb.3521]

Karma Yoga Check

[@markotrieste]

9:44 please show the defeated guy too... 😂

[@Iruleyouforafee]

"There are difficulties in life." No shit.

[@tonyburton419]

😂

[@AhirZamanSairi]

Crazy joe divola was pretty anti-fragile for sure, I guess that's why they put him on the video

[@ivanchrist9350]

O

[@meegs699]

Pete!? Pete Holmes!!??

[@VictoriaSt.Louis101]

yes, great but i’ve seen all this content before already. is it just me?

[@tonyburton419]

No it isnt.

[@austinrhoads]

I am vengeance

[@OrangeMicMusic]

Not to offend anyone, but I can't refrain to ask these people talking about how to deal with suffering from their ivory tower - did they ever encounter real suffering?

[@raul-qi6xp]

I'm sure they have all suffered, but I can tell you mean a specific flavor of suffering and possibly the prison guy has experienced that

[@Knightx392]

​@@thebrianiandayinteresting 🤔

[@skyisreallyhigh3333]

Of course they never have.

[@skyisreallyhigh3333]

​@@thebrianiandayNo, not everyone has. And if you're wealthy, you most certainly have not.

[@rockerknight25]

​@@skyisreallyhigh3333 Being wealthy doesn't make your dog car-proof. It doesn't make your beloved grandparents immortal. It doesn't make your family members immune from cancer. Just because yiu have a chaufer doesn't mean a drunk driver isn't going to hit you. Wealth can make life a lot easier and can certainly help limit the ramifications of disaster, but it doesn't mean they don't suffer ever at all. If you truly believe that then you're basically a classist bigot. Also that one dude was speaking of his experiences from prison so I wonder how wealthy he is.

[@becky2235]

Our contract wirh the world? For virtue of being here? Ok didnt ask to be here or sign a contract!😅

[@sirborges]

But you are. You have the option to grow up to accept this fact.

[@skyisreallyhigh3333]

​@@sirborgesYes, telling people to grow up is so adult like...

[@sirborges]

@@skyisreallyhigh3333 read it as you want, it's good advice. The world is horrible and it won't change to our please just because we whine about it.

[@skyisreallyhigh3333]

@@sirborges Not if whine about it no, but we can change it. Thongs don't actually have to be the way they are, and they haven't always been. Antifragility is literally a nonsensical term. It pushes hyper-individualism and ignores the very real systemic issues that don't have to exist, but do because we practice capitalism.

[@sirborges]

@@skyisreallyhigh3333 Which leads to idealism and wishful thinking. Antifragility could be a strategy to deal with difficult times, not to ignore them. Idealism ignores reality more than anything else.

[@notyourfallguydaddyorson6835]

And make sure you choose either the all White team or all Black team or you're going onto a Cross.

[@kylonsegura8730]

???

[@Martha_My_Dear]

I loved the video, really insightful. I took notes on everything. On the other hand, that guy with one liter of saliva mixed with blood coming out of his mouth was absolutely disgusting and unnecessary. Why would you include that AND replay it like three times lol

[@hopegrable]

I understand the concept of the topic, however, using a double negative phrase like anti-fragility risks people who could benefit from this message of not listening to it at all because no one wants to think of themselves as fragile. Even if no one finds out that they've watched this video, they might be so put off by the thought of being seen as fragile, they would likely keep scrolling right past it. I think it would resonate with more people if you used the phrase "more resilient" instead. No one wants to be viewed as fragile, but most people would be interested in learning how to be more resilient as a form of self improvement. I wonder what would happen if you reposted this video with a title that said, "Learn to be more resilient for a happier life." Would you get more views/likes? 🤔

[@bretthowser6777]

This video was bait & switch. After defining Antifragile and showing a photo of Taleb the remainder of the video was pretty silly & useless. Yet another happiness - or maybe anti Unhappiness - presentation. A waste f time.

[@CarlosRincon]

Great video as usual but the sad clown make this video a bit dreadful to watch

[@BigThinkDZ]

It's s wonderful term That's actually a clunky, ugly term...wtf? 🤣