Which are you? Do you break easily? Are you rigid, resilient, and able to weather a storm? Or do you improve with struggle? I started thinking about this after reading Nassim Taleb’s Antifragile: Things that Gain from Disorder.

Fragile

Fragile things break easily when outside pressure is applied. Shipping a painting carries the risk of the frame, the glass, and the painting being damaged in transit.

Robust

Robust things maintain their structure when outside pressure is applied. The brick wall on the front of my house seems to hold up against rain, sleet, snow, and blasting sun. Nothing seems to fade it or compromise its integrity.

Antifragile

Antifragile things improve when stressed by those same outside forces. The sycamore tree down at the creek in our neighborhood has been pushed, pulled, and assaulted by the creek, by floods, by wind, and weather, yet it’s gnarled roots have tapped deep into the earth and made it stronger.