What an expat VC learned from the US Election

Photo credit: ssilver / 123RF Stock Photo.

As an American living abroad, I have been shielded from a lot of the insanity of this year’s election, but even sitting here in Tokyo, halfway across the world, the vitriol and frustration are palpable—people have said harsh goodbyes to friends, and families have lost touch. The question of what it really means to be an American remains up for debate.

One thing is clear: Shit is broken. The world we lived in previously has changed, and the American Dream is no longer an option.

College doesn’t guarantee you a job anymore. And even if it does, your job has probably started to be replaced by technology. Entire companies are being dismantled, so a long-term career at one company is rare. Most women don’t want to be just wives anymore, nor do they have to be. As the Great Financial Crisis taught us so painfully, houses don’t always go up in value, so they are not a safe investment anymore.

One thing is clear: Shit is broken. The world we lived in previously has changed.

So yeah, shit is broken. The promises we were sold have turned out to be empty, and it’s not really anyone’s fault, either. It just is. Sure, we can try to put it all back together again. But even if that were possible, it still wouldn’t work. Why? One word: technology.

Technology has not only changed the world, but it has changed how fast the world changes. As Nobel Prize winner, Bob Dylan so eloquently pointed out “The times they are a’changing.” And they’re changing faster than ever before.

The concept of the ‘antifragile’

Nassim Nicholas Taleb, the author of the Black Swan, wrote a fantastic book called Antifragile. I have a short attention span, so I’m not going to lie to you, I only read half of it. But the takeaway is this: Fragility is when you break something, and you cannot repair it. Resilience is when you break something, and it can return to its previous state.

Antifragility, is when you break something, and it returns to an even better state, more powerful and stronger than before.

Antifragility, is when you break something, and it returns to an even better state, more powerful and stronger than before.

I can only hope that part of what makes America great is that we are antifragile. We need to have faith in our ability to heal the rifts that emerged from the US election, to face the difficult conversations that must take place, and to emerge a stronger, more informed, more creative, and more antifragile nation than we were before.

However, this requires us to take a step back, set aside our emotions, and look closely at the incredible, valuable, and previously unseen information revealed by this election. So let’s remove the emotion, take a look at the facts brought to light, and dedicate ourselves to building something better in its wake.

What have we learned?

Technology has forever changed how individuals make decisions

We used to live in a world where information was difficult to access. We relied on key institutions like political parties, the media, and academic and religious institutions to make an informed decision.