Taylor Pearson – Paving The Road To “Antifragile”
You ever wondered what happens when a complex system is under rapid changes? Does it thrive, collapse, or merely survive? And how can we make sure it doesn’t fail?
Taylor Pearson ventured to answer these very questions. So he wrote two books, “Markets are Eating the World” and “The End of Jobs”, and many essays on just that. All of these you can find on his website. He’s also a principal at Mutiny Fund, a coach, a consultant, as well as one of the most prominent spokesmen for the antifragile approach.
Let’s see what this fascinating .MEr is all about.
The First Step Towards Antifragile
It all started after the 2008 financial crisis. This Black Swan event did not just compromise financial stability. For Taylor, it crushed the trust in the financial systems too:
“My belief at the time was that thoughtful experts captained the world around us. The 2008 financial crisis made it seem no one was at the wheel. No one knew what they were doing. How did something as insignificant and esoteric as an underwriting error in the U.S. housing market bring the global economy to its knees? And how did almost nobody see it coming?”
Jolted awake by such a terrible thought, Taylor started his research on how to prepare for unpreparable. One of the first books he came upon in this ambitious endeavor was at the same time the one that influenced him the most. “Fooled by Randomness”, by Nassim Taleb. This is where he met with the term “antifragile”.
When evaluating whether a system is fragile or not, the antonym for fragility would be robustness. Dissatisfied with this dichotomy, Taleb came up with an alternative concept somewhere beyond the two.
In Taylor’s own words:
“Understanding the logic of this new world view is a fundamental skill for our time. To be successful as a developer, designer, marketer, CEO, or investor, you must understand how to become more antifragile.”
The main advantage of this new approach is that, while robustness can only withstand adversity or volatility, antifragility thrives in volatile environments. Taylor Pearson recognized the many benefits of such an approach over the traditional ones. A grunt of his work is really based on promoting and further expanding antifragility to new fields and systems.
The End Of Jobs
In “The End Of Jobs”, Pearson explains how our economy is evolving. He avers that the traditional “safe job” model is not only unreliable, but may even prove to be harmful. His main claim is that self-employment may provide young people with more stability and control over their future chances.
As he claims:
“The same technologies and remedies that have increased your competition in the job market have been a boon to entrepreneurs. They’ve dropped start-up costs, opened new markets and created new distribution channels. It’s easier than ever to make something and tell people about it.”
“The End of Jobs” can be regarded as a Millennials’ handbook for thinking out of the box. Through this book, Pearson contributes to the emancipation of the generation that was raised to live in the world that doesn’t exist anymore.
Markets Are Eating The World
Blockchain technology is much like a fad song from TikTok. You can hear it everywhere, but rarely anyone understands what it’s about.
Enter Taylor’s second book. “Markets are Eating the World” will not just explain how blockchain works. It will provide you with the map of understanding the logic behind it.
And that is just part of it. Relying on the division between “markets” and “firms”, his thesis is that the world is changing its course from firms (many large corporations) and toward markets (lots of functioning individual entities).
In a concise and visual storytelling, Pearson takes us through four eras of technological development that have made way for the paradigm shift.
“Backed by both academic research and engaging historical narratives, this book will help readers feeling left behind and show them how they can turn this new technology into their biggest opportunity. As the blockchain space continues to grow, this will be the book people recommend to their friends, colleagues and students looking to understand what’s going on”, Pearson concludes.
Taylor’s Personal Website – An Online Knowledge Bank
What happens when a system monitored by the world’s top experts collapses? Can you prepare yourself for an unforeseeable crisis? And what is a Black Swan event? These are just some of the questions to which you will find answers on taylorpearson.me.
Started as a weekend project and a place to back up all the acquired information, taylorpearson.me gradually became an impressive knowledge bank on all things antifragile.
Taylor calls his personal website his “home on the interwebz”. And since it’s his own home, no wonder he chose the personal .ME as his domain.
What The Future Holds For Taylor Pearson?
Well, asking such a question about a person whose entire body of work rests upon the concept of unpredictability is paradoxical. To say at least. Be that as it may, Taylor Pearson has all the right tools to handle whatever life holds in store for him.
