I was quite surprised that nobody brought this up yet, but to me it is fairly clear that this is what Taleb's antifragility MUST look like upon close inspection: a lot of "free energy" trapped in such a way that only destructive shocks can release it. Any system that actually benefits from destructive shocks must look mad, consisting of crazy parts. If all the trillion-dollar-bills lying around were accessible (and hence immediately picked up) "in peace time", there would be no reserve for dealing with unexpected shocks from unknow... (read more)
I was quite surprised that nobody brought this up yet, but to me it is fairly clear that this is what Taleb's antifragility MUST look like upon close inspection: a lot of "free energy" trapped in such a way that only destructive shocks can release it. Any system that actually benefits from destructive shocks must look mad, consisting of crazy parts. If all the trillion-dollar-bills lying around were accessible (and hence immediately picked up) "in peace time", there would be no reserve for dealing with unexpected shocks from unknow... (read more)