I am sure I am not alone in this, but I remember that growing up my dad would come home from work and ask me what I had learned that day. I am certain I mostly responded with a shoulder shrug and a "I don't know." Regrets...

I was reminded of these memories as I pondered that question for myself today. What did I learn today? I asked myself this question because as part of a quota system for personal development I have committed to writing 3 blog posts a week, and material is hard to come by. I figured that if I could remember something I learned today I could share that knowledge in a post...

It is disappointing that my query, "what did I learn today?", turned up very little. I learned some about the concept of Anti-fragility as I started to listen to the book Antifragile by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. My dad suggested I take a look at this book. It is funny that it was him given how this post started.

I haven't made it far into this book, but it is already quite intriguing. He points out that there is no native word for the opposite of fragile in most, if not all, of the languages in the world. The first words that come to mind are resilient, solid, or robust. However, these types of words do not reflect the opposite at all...

Robust, resilient, solid... these words certainly describe something that is not fragile. Software may be made robust through careful engineering. A robust piece of software does not break down at the onset of chaotic input or external failures. However, a robust software system cannot be said to be anti-fragile as it would need to not only fail to break down in the presence of randomness, but it would need to improve. Fragile systems go bad when subjected to randomness they are the negative. Robust systems stay the same they are the neutral. Antifragile systems improve they are the positive.

If it wasn't for this one thing I think my response to "what did I learn today?" would have been to shrug my shoulders and say "I don't know." I find this troubling as I spent a good 8 hours of my life working without gaining one bit of knowledge in the process. Regrets...

Given this revelation it is clear the direction I should take. Instead of asking what I learned I need to ask "what will I learn?" If not, I'll end up living in regret yet again.