On... Antifragile Jobs

Last blog, I talked about taking up a job or having a Plan B that is antifragile or at least robust. 

I have picked up trading as my insurance. One that I think can be antifragile. So which kind of jobs are fragile and which ones are antifragile? This is one of the topics that I first came across when reading the book Antifragile by Nassim Taleb.

In his book (chapter 5), he talked about two types of profession - one with predictable income and the other extremely variable. So, which one of those would be considered a fragile profession? First thought would be the one with extremely variable income. But that's not the case at all. 

I used to work as a white collar professional and that would put me in the first category. I had a predictable income and I could plan ahead easily. That's what I thought until I was retrenched when the oil crisis hit in 2015. My 'stable ' job turned out to be pretty unstable and fragile. Finding a new job was hard as the oil price would take a long time to recover. Being quite specialized meant that there was no demand for my type of skills. 

Now, what type of jobs does Taleb cite as being antifragile? Artisans, taxi drivers, prostitutes, carpenters, tailors, dentists... Etc. All who have some volatility in their income but they are rather robust to a minor professional Black Swan, one that would bring their income to a complete halt. Small variations in these jobs make them adapt and change continuously by learning from the environment. Like the saying - What doesn't kill me, makes me stronger. 

All this sounds too familiar to an investor or trader? Sure does. Trading is probably the second oldest profession next to prostitution, and it's not going anywhere soon as its driven by human emotions of fear and greed. And humans never change. The return stream of investing is pretty uncertain and most of the time lumpy, but each loss is a feedback to yourself on how to improve. 

Find a Plan B that is antifragile. For me, that is trading.