Anti-fragile Performance Art

The best way to build an anti-fragile product is to build in public.

The antifragile is beyond the resilient or robust. The resilient resists shocks and stays the same; the antifragile gets better and better.

Stand-up comedy is a performance that requires instant reactions from the audience.

As a modern day sophist, their job is to read the room, sense the vibe, and shift it.

Curative comedy, satire, and irony can be very effective against self-serious people.

The comedian-as-product-manager intuits deep human insights, translates them into a premise, and constructs a punchline.

A joke falling flat is like a product feature that doesn’t resonate with user.

Like open-source contributors, comedians are in it for the love of the game, or a deep need to address their own unprocessed trauma.

For the casual observer, it’s a performance art that brushes up against the edge of sanity.

What normal, sane citizen gets up on stage, in a darkened room, with a spotlight on them, in front of an audience that’s been given alcohol and the expectation the artist will make them laugh?

No pressure!

If you’ve been to an open mic, then you’ve seen a brave product manager on stage.

Bombing is literally part of the process.

Stand-up comedy is an anti-fragile product and performance art.

Sundays are for art.