A particular substance or material is considered resilient if it returns to its original form after enduring stress or pressure
According to Taleb, a substance or material is antifragile if, after enduring stress or pressure, it doesn’t merely return to its original state, but grows stronger as a result. If a resilient ball bounces back to where it was before, an antifragile ball bounces back higher.
More generally, an antifragile system—and that could be an inanimate object or a living entity in the form of a person, a relationship, a group of people, or even a nation—goes through hardship and consequently grows stronger, better, happier.
When Friedrich Nietzsche, the nineteenth-century German philosopher, wrote that “Whatever does not kill me makes me stronger” he was describing antifragility
And, indeed, you can grow from adversity, and experience antifragility, even if you have gone through extreme hardship. Trauma can pull us down or raise us up, leave us weaker or make us stronger.
thực ra không nên đi tìm hạnh phúc, vì đi tìm hạnh phúc thì phải định nghĩa hạnh phúc là gì mà hạnh phúc là một khái niệm mơ hồ khó diễn ra ra bằng ngôn ngữ, nên ta đặt câu hỏi làm thế nào để có hạnh phúc hơn, thông qua các trải nghiệm của ta mỗi ngày, mỗi giây phút ta sống thế thôi
The Myth of Success and Happiness
Most people believe that the path to happiness is through success.
- If only I could achieve my dream—attain this goal, reach that milestone—I would be happy. Or, following some significant failure, we think, My dream is over. Everything is ruined. I didn’t make it. I’ll never be happy now. According to this formula, success is the cause; happiness is the effect. It turns out, though, that this is wrong—not a little wrong, but very wrong.
- Successes do lead you to experiencing highs, while failures lead you to experiencing lows, however these fluctuations are fleeting and in and of themselves are not the building blocks of a happy or unhappy life. Does that mean there isn’t a relationship between success and happiness? No. In fact, there’s a very strong relationship, but it’s the opposite of what most people think. It’s not success that leads to happiness; rather it is that happiness leads to success. Thành công đưa bạn đến những đỉnh cao, trong khi thất bại dẫn bạn đến những đỉnh cao, tuy nhiên những biến động này chỉ thoáng qua và bản thân chúng không phải là nền tảng của một cuộc sống hạnh phúc hay bất hạnh. Điều đó có nghĩa là không có mối quan hệ giữa thành công và hạnh phúc? Không. Trên thực tế, có một mối quan hệ rất bền chặt, nhưng nó ngược lại với những gì hầu hết mọi người nghĩ. Không phải thành công mới dẫn đến hạnh phúc; đúng hơn nó là hạnh phúc dẫn đến thành công.
Why Happiness Matters
Psychologists and organizational scholars consistently demonstrate that if you increase your levels of wellbeing, even by a little bit, you become a great deal more successful.7
- And by successful, I mean not only in the traditional sense of goal achievement—but also in a much broader, multidimensional sense. You’ll be more successful as a parent, as a partner, as an employee, as a coach, and as a friend.
- By increasing happiness levels even slightly, you become more creative and more innovative, whether in the workplace as an adult, or in school as a child. Productivity and engagement levels, at work and in school, increase significantly in tandem with an increase in wellbeing. Increasing happiness levels makes us kinder and more generous and reduces the likelihood of violence and immoral behavior in general.
- Our mental and physiological immune systems are linked, and increasing happiness levels fortifies our psychological resilience as well as boosts our physical resilience. Happy people are healthier, better able to ward off disease, and (controlling for all other factors) live longer
- Happiness improves our relationships, which is even more important when so many of us are remaining in one place, often with the same people, for extended periods of time.9
What Is Happiness?