A lot of people love to talk shit about how the internet can make you antifragile. Just hide behind a screen and post bro. There’ll be no repercussions. I’m sure everyone nowadays knows that this isn’t true. But still, some people still like to push the message that all you need to do to have total freedom is start an anonymous online content business. As someone who owns a pseudonymous online content business, I can confidently tell you that this isn’t true. The concept of being antifragile sounds good at first, but it doesn’t really work in practice. In reality, you need to create an internal framework for dealing with chaos.
What does it mean to be antifragile?
The concept of antifragility comes from a book by Nassim Nicholas Taleb of the same name. He’s actually an options trader. In his words, an anti fragile system is one that thrives in chaos. A lot of digital entrepreneurs have taken it to mean that you should build a pseudonymous or anonymous online business while working your job and blast out your opinions. The more online noise there is, the more money you make. Since you’re hiding behind a cartoon, you’re impossible to cancel. You only get stronger as things get crazier, and other people with public personas begin to suffer as the mob comes after them. Meanwhile you’re able to spout off whatever opinion you want without problems. This doesn’t work at all, for a multitude of reasons.
Nobody likes a jerk
You might get eyeballs in the short run. People might keep tabs on you in the hope that you fail. But nobody likes to deal with someone who is a jerk. So, if you want to go online and spew nonsense, you can. But you’ll isolate yourself and put yourself in a position where you can’t really work with anyone. It’s going to suck. You want to be reasonably likable. Create as much positivity for yourself as you can, so that your mindset is positive and that you attract the right people around you. If you’re a jerk, people will hate you. They will sabotage you and avoid working with your business. This means that there’s no such thing as a truly anti fragile business. You always need 3rd party validation.
Brands don’t want to be associated with crazy stuff
This is the reality of being online. If you want to make real money, you’re probably going to want to partner with people. People don’t want to partner with websites and people who are doing crazy things. It’s best to avoid testing the limits of the internet. There’s absolutely no value to it, and the odds of you being able to earn a living without the help of others is extremely low. You’re going to want to be able to work with other brands if you’re going to want to make real money.
The truth sells better
In the absolute long run. The best content is what’s going to last, provided it has the proper marketing. Put your stuff out there, don’t be afraid of telling the truth or speaking your mind. But don’t burner bridges, write garbage, or tell lies for the sake of content. Truth, light, and positivity will win in the long run. The internet is a tool designed for human beings to find each other. When there’s a lot of noise, it becomes harder for the truth to come out. But over the long term, consistency creates a reputation.
You feel better when you’re doing positive work
You want to be doing the best work that you can be doing. If you’re not doing positive work, you’re going to be very stressed out. Positive work is the best way to make yourself feel as though you’re getting something done. Positive work doesn’t require you to be antifragile. The only purpose of being pseudonymous or anonymous when building a real brand is so that you can create some distance between yourself and any potential stalkers. That’s the paradox of being antifragile. You want to be, but you don’t want to need to be antifragile.
Long term businesses generate real wealth
If you want to have a lot of money, you’re probably going to want to create a bunch of businesses that generate serious cashflow. This is pretty much the only realistic way to get ahead of the wealth-creation game. In order to do this, you’re going to want to generate a bunch of wealth over the long-term as you maintain a cash flowing asset. Over the long term, repuation matters. So even if you’re antifragile, you can’t insult people or rip them off. Which means that being antifragile never really mattered.
Investors help create real wealth
If you want to actually get wealthy, you’re going to want to communicate with investors. There’s no such thing as being antifragile when you have investors. They will always want to know who you are, and they need to like you. If you want to have a lot of success online, you’re going to want to own a large, family-friendly brand. Even though it won’t be associated with your personality, you’re going to want your brand to be recognizable to investors. People putting money into your business need to feel like they’re supporting a good thing. Even if your business is anti-fragile in a technical sense, you’re going to want to be able to resonate with important people. This means you will have to watch what you say and build relationships.
People who care enough can doxx you anyways
That’s the truth about creating online content. If people really care, they can get on your a$$ when it comes to bothering you, doxxing you, and generally making your life miserable. This is why I try to maintain a positive message across Rising Current, even though it’s quite tough during these days. If people really have something against you, they’re going to doxx and expose you. Being antifragile makes you harder to doxx, but it doesn’t guarantee that it won’t happen. A motivated person with strong computer science skills will figure out a way to do it.
Chaos is predictable, and you can control for it
The simple fact of the matter is that if you know statistics, you can know what’s possible and what isn’t. This means that you can set up your life such that you avoid lots of chaos. For example, it’s very possible that you’re able to make $1 million over the course of your lifetime. But it’s not likely that you’ll end up having $1 million liquid in the bank in your lifetime. It’s even less likely that you’ll have $10 million. This means that once you get your hands on $1 million, you’ll save it if you understand probabilities. Thinking probabilistically with $1 million, will create you a bunch more wealth than not thinking with $10 million. Perhaps I don’t understand Taleb well enough, but I think the way to thrive in chaos is to think in probabilities.
There’s no such thing as a free lunch
If you want to serve humanity, you need to serve humanity. If you want money, you need to do things that are of value and sell valuable products. If you run a content business, your content is a part of or one of your products. This means that your product needs to resonate with people enough for them to refrain from shutting you down and ruining your life. This means you will always need to watch what you say and be wary of chaos, whether or not your run your business anonymously.
Being antifragile is cool, but making money online is cooler. The point of trying to make money online is to solve problems for the masses or deliver high-value information to the right people. Not much has changed, it’s just that more of the economy has been digitized. You still need people to like you in order to make a good living online. If you destroy your reputation, you’re going to struggle to make a live, even with a pseudonym. Being antifragile is a hedge against the destruction of your reputation. In reality, you want to get famous without being known. You want your brand to have power, but you don’t want your face to be associated with an internet phenomenon on a day to day basis. The way to deal with chaos isn’t necessarily to try and build a system which thrives on it. It’s to keep working your butt off. Concepts like antifragility don’t work if you’re of average or above average intelligence. You basically need to be a genius and “speak the same language” as the author to make things like this work. What you should do instead is create a world for yourself in which you are statistically highly likely to succeed. Don’t try to come up with fancy gimmicks designed to “escape” the matrix. Do what’s right and build your business properly. That’s the true way to be antifragile.
Thanks for paying attention.
