Josh Plovanic's Writings and Thoughts

  ANTIFRAGILITY TRAINING A Comprehensive Manual for Building Systems, Minds, Souls, and Lives That Grow Stronger Under Stress INTRODUCTION — WHAT ANTIFRAGILITY REALLY IS (AND WHAT IT IS NOT) Most people misunderstand strength. They think strength means: resisting damage avoiding failure maintaining stability staying safe That is fragility wearing armor . Others believe resilience is the pinnacle: endure stress recover after damage “bounce back” Resilience is better—but it still assumes damage is bad . Antifragility is different. Antifragile systems do not merely survive stress—they require it to improve. The Three Conditions Fragile – breaks under stress Robust/Resilient – resists or recovers from stress Antifragile – improves because of stress Antifragility is not toughness. Antifragility is evolution engineered on purpose . PART I — THE CORE LAWS OF ANTIFRAGILITY Law 1: Stress Is Information Stress reveals: weak points blind spots false...

I. FOUNDATIONAL TROUBLESHOOTING LAWS (Meta-Skills) These govern all effective problem-solving. Problem Definition Precision If you can’t define the problem cleanly, you’re fixing symptoms, not causes. Distinguishing Signal from Noise Separate what matters from what’s merely loud, emotional, or distracting. First Principles Decomposition Break the issue down until you hit irreducible truths. Root Cause Analysis (5-Whys Thinking) Ask “why?” until the real failure mechanism appears. Constraint Identification Determine what cannot be changed—this defines the battlefield. Assumption Auditing Explicitly list assumptions and test which ones are false. Problem Reframing Translate the problem into multiple frames (mechanical, emotional, ethical, strategic). Failure Mode Enumeration Ask: “How could this break?” before asking how to fix it. State vs Process Awareness Is this a broken condition or a broken process ? Map–Territory Differentiation Separ...