The writing of Nassim Taleb is referenced in many groups that I associate with these days. If you are not familiar, he’s written “The Black Swan”, “Fooled by Randomness”, and “Antifragile; Things that Gain from Disorder”. Through these books, he’s gained a large following in the trading and crypto space, and it’s the concept in that last book, the concept of Antifragility that is on my mind as of late.
Learning about Antifragility
Antifragile is a quality that goes past resilience, more than just being sturdy and solid. Being antifragile means being able to take some damage and come back stronger. In the fully actuated sense, those entities who are truly antifragile thrive when exposed to the volatility and stress they face, because they are able to learn from the damage and return better. Kintsugi, the art of repairing pottery with gold, is often cited as an example of antifragility.
While I like to gaze at pottery in the museums as much as the next guy (let’s go back and see the mastodon again), I absorbed the value of the concept when I first started to understand bitcoin. When first introduced, bitcoin benefited from the lack of interest it garnered. While the blockchain was small and exploits weren’t expensive to absorb, the protocol was being tested, broken, and fixed. This demonstration of antifragility in many parts is the reason why bitcoin will always reign highest (nfa) among the blockchain currencies. It was first-to-market, yes, but that status has value because it was being repaired over and over each time a bug was discovered.
“We fall, Master Bruce, so that we can get back up.”
Bringing this concept into YOM, antifragility from a business perspective can be hugely disruptive to many people and families. When the first iteration of YOM went into receivership, the hard work and dedication of the many employees and their families from that business may have seemed unrealized. Having been through a few company closures over the years, I can tell you it is not always a dry-eye’d experience.
Now a new YOM has been created, in our internal documentation, YOM v.2. We who have been charged with seeing this new entity rise and take on the goals of bringing forth the infrastructure that will empower the 3D internet available to all are not starting from scratch. We are starting with the long hours, dedication, and creativity of those who came before us. We take that on soberly.
We take up this dream and embrace the concept of antifragility as we do so. In the changeover, we have the ability to look at those things that disrupted the dream, the internal and external factors, and do our best to counter and prepare. Is our focus in the right place, clearly defined and sharp? Are we preparing for market turns that will disrupt this entire sector? Will we manage our growth correctly, take advantage of our resources when they are available and bring on the right people who share our vision and values?
Are we going to be antifragile? I strongly believe we will be.
My History with Risk Management
Having been in the high risk/high reward video game industry for most of my professional career (ooo, a hint to who this guys is), risk management is part of my business DNA. My role for all of those years included managing risk for projects and pushing back on the decision makers who wanted to run to the edge and jump. I was not always able to stop that. Sometimes the jump off the edge led to a plummet, and sometimes it led to a project soaring. And sometimes my pushback stopped them from jumping at all.
At this point in my career, however, I think the concept of antifragile is something I will be embracing more. The idea that some projects never jumped at all bothers the half of me that is a creative developer. My artist-half has jumped off of so many cliffs, taken so many risks and allowed myself to fall and get back up so many times in my personal life. It is probably high time I allow some of that risk taking to enter the project direction side. If ever there was an industry who can embrace the concept of antifragility, it is the web3 software world.
So will the YOM technology power a revolution in streaming services, giving them the ability to stream gaming content with the ease of streaming videos? Let’s try it and find out. Can retailers use gaming applications on their website to increase engagement and drive sales in a way that rewards both the business and their loyal customers? We here think so, it is entirely worth a try. Was the dream and the dedication and the creativity of YOM v1 worth bringing forward with YOM v2 because that dream itself is antifragile? Almost certainly.
Retrospective
Agile project management, which I have been an advocate for years as a game developer, has a ceremony called the Retrospective. At the end of each 2–3 week cycle, the development team gets together to ask themselves what they did well in the past cycle (to reinforce to keep doing those things), what they struggled with (to reinforce a sense of constructive introspection), and how can they fix those mistakes (to problem solve as a team, not rely on a ‘leader’ to solve their problems). It is a process I pushed on many teams without even knowing it was a demonstration of antifragility. One studio directly told me NOT to hold a second one after their very first one (ugh). That’s a story for another time.
Now armed with an understanding of antifragility, I am going to suggest this process for each of us, inside and outside of YOM. On regular intervals, ask ourselves what we did right in the past month, and celebrate those. Ask ourselves where we struggle, without being overly critical. We are each only human (sorry ChatGTP). And what kinds of things can we do to correct or approach those challenges.
Getting back up after falling. Learning from the past and growing stronger. Antifragility. It’s what YOM v2 is built on.
The Ecosystem Director
About YOM:
YOM is the 1st cloud gaming DePIN powering white label metaverses, immersive experiences, and games at near-zero prices and at global low-latency coverage to any device and channel. YOM is providing studios with the tools, grants and an accelerator program they need to easily craft and deploy their own Unreal Engine 5 experiences built for their brand, clients, product, or interest. YOM’s pixel-streaming infrastructure is optimised for quality, performance, and flexibility. The project is backed by a network of top-tier advisors that will be revealed over the coming weeks.
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