In the early 1970s, thrill-seeker and adventurer Alby Mangan goes on a six year adventure with his mate John which takes them all around the world as they more-or-less follow opportunities as they arise.
After working as brick layers on an Australian island, Alby and John become voluntary crew members on a Ketch sailing boat. They depart Sydney harbour and sail through the pacific ocean to Tonga, the Gilbert Islands and on to South Asia.
Whilst watching this, it’s remarkable to note what an intricate piece of engineering these boats are. Then again, sailing boats have been around for much longer than cars have, and so boats have been through more iterations (more innovation!) than cars have.
What’s amazing is how the boat has been designed so that it can be continuously fixed. At one point, it had a leak and so they patched it up. Another time, the main boom snapped so they made a new one. Luckily they had a spare pine log onboard so they carved it to the right shape and attached it (whilst in the middle of a storm!).
I wonder if there’s a heuristic about survival or antifragility in this tale:
You and your team need to be able to fix the vessel you’re on.
That applies to both the skills you have, but also the way in which the vessel is designed so that it can be fixed. The vessel here could refer to either vehicle, business, software or product. Any reliance on people or pieces outside of the team, automatically constitutes an increase in fragility.