Listen now (23 min). Uncertainty is always seen as a bad thing — but there is a good, generative side to uncertainty. Uncertainty is an inescapable feature of innovation work, not a bug to be eliminated. But what makes uncertainty generative? This essay answers that question. I share three general design principles for infusing systems, environments, practices, organizations with generative uncertainty. Illustrated with examples from all over the place, from the Auvergnat low-intervention wine ecosystem, to regenerative population wheat farming in the UK, to an accidental retail innovation incubator in a crumbly shopping mall in Singapore.
1. maybe "fragility" needs to be defined more clearly in that post
2. there may be what theorists would call slippage
maybe another way to put it is to replace "antifragility" with "robustness"
robustness can be thought of as being [solid enough to withstand changing circumstances without changing form] or [having substance that allows consistency even if form changes when circumstances change]. people like the oak vs willow imagery, but i think that misses something crucial which is the difference between form and substance.
anyway, i much prefer the latter definition, and i'm really not sure that babies learning to walk is a good physical analogy for it.
i do think a mindset is robust (second definition) and antifragile if it recognises uncertainty, distinguishes it clearly from risk, and is able to figure out how to work through uncertainty. that's usually generative, and that's what i would think of as an uncertainty mindset.
what do you think about this (https://studio.ribbonfarm.com/p/gradatim-ferociter) in the context of uncertainity, risk and fragility?
good question.
i think
1. maybe "fragility" needs to be defined more clearly in that post
2. there may be what theorists would call slippage
maybe another way to put it is to replace "antifragility" with "robustness"
robustness can be thought of as being [solid enough to withstand changing circumstances without changing form] or [having substance that allows consistency even if form changes when circumstances change]. people like the oak vs willow imagery, but i think that misses something crucial which is the difference between form and substance.
anyway, i much prefer the latter definition, and i'm really not sure that babies learning to walk is a good physical analogy for it.
i do think a mindset is robust (second definition) and antifragile if it recognises uncertainty, distinguishes it clearly from risk, and is able to figure out how to work through uncertainty. that's usually generative, and that's what i would think of as an uncertainty mindset.