In their book The Coddling of the American Mind, Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt address three untruths that seem to be gaining acceptance around the world. They describe one of those untruths as “what doesn’t kill you makes you weaker”. It’s the idea that people need to be protected from ideas that might offend them or make them uncomfortable.
The human mind, body and spirit are not fragile systems that you need to handle with kid gloves. In fact, if you protect them too much, they lose strength. If you never challenge your body’s muscles by lifting heavy items, they will grow weaker. The same is true for your mind.
Humans are not fragile or even resilient, we’re antifragile.
In the 1992-93 DC Comics crossover story The Death of Superman, Superman is killed by the monster Doomsday. Of course, Doomsday is strong and able to take quite a beating, but what makes him more formidable is that fighting with Superman makes him even stronger. Every time Superman attacks, Doomsday’s body adapts. Boney growths jut out where he’s been hit, making him even harder to kill.
Your personal universe, and by extension, you, are like the Doomsday monster. Antifragile.
To be your strongest and your best, you need to be challenged. To build a stronger personal universe, you need to intentionally expose yourself to new ideas that may contradict what you believe. The stronger the foe (competing ideas and knowledge) the stronger you become.
New ideas won’t kill you. They will make you stronger.
