Becoming Antifragile

Taleb. Great stuff.

IMO, several antifragile moves an individual can make:

Financial -

1) Hold WAY more cash than you think you need. Should the market crash, or some type of financial opportunity arises, it's good to be able to take advantage of it.

2) Diversify your assets. This doesn't just mean diversity in stocks. I mean, own a variety of things that maintain or go up in value - stocks, bonds, jewelry, home, cash, tools. I'm open to other ideas. Remember, this is not to maximize return or wealth, but to become antifragile.

3) Keep stock assets in a variety of tax positioned accounts, ie post-tax, roth ira, pre-tax. Situations may arise where you can take advantage. For example, you might need to buy a new car or decide to buy a new roof. Better to take that money from post-tax rather than deal with messing with an IRA.

3) Eliminate all debt.

4) Keep your monthly nut as low as possible, but feel free to indulge in one-off purchases because they can be eliminated. This means aim low on rent and not having car payments, basically.

5) Get insurance to avoid catastrophe, but don't overbuy. (ancedote: I drive an old car and was re-upping my car insurance and realized, I really just need the basic collision because if I get into an accident, the car won't be worth repairing. So...rather than overbuy insurance, just hold cash for the eventual purchase of a new car)

Social Life

1) Keep a variety of friends in different regions of the country / globe. Never know when you'll need to move or would like to visit.

2) Keep different circles of friends. Should one circle disappoint or break up, you will have others to fall back upon.

3) Have a mix of close friends, sort of close friends, and acquaintances. Should you find yourself lacking close friends, try and turn some sort of close friends into close friends. Should you find yourself lacking sort of close friends, try turning some acquaintances into sort of close friends. It sounds mercenary, but this is actually a good idea.

4) Develop and cultivate a variety of activities one enjoys, ie garden, play soccer, hiking, playing cards/games, weigh lifting, wood working, etc.

5) Always be putting yourself in position to meet new people.

Career

1) Get two or three jobs instead of one. (if you lose one job, or it doesn't pay enough, you can concentrate on the others)

2) Develop multiple employable skills. (if one falls out of fashion or becomes obsolete, you are not stuck)

3) Produce property or goods that you own and can be sold. Try and develop ways to earn money that don't require additional labor per unit. (your wages aren't exclusively tied to your labor, but you can make passive income)

4) Get married to someone else with all the above mentioned qualities.

Family

1) Have more children as opposed to fewer children.

2) Stay in good touch with extended family and participate in their lives.

Creative Projects

1) Work on a number of projects at one time. But a huge caveat, I'd add to this from my own experience: Always keep one in first position and focus on completing that to full task. Be outlining, or planning numerous others in different stages. You can run into the problem of trying to do too much at one time just as easily as you can put all your eggs in one basket.

2) Work in different forms.

3) Always be paying attention to others working and try to improve on it.

4) Work within a tradition.