Bastiani Fortress
A community of like-minded peers is crucial for maintaining dignity and motivation when pursuing unconventional or high-risk ideas. It provides insulation from external judgment.
THE IDEA
When You Need the Bastiani Fortress
Note that there was no brother-in-law around in Drogo’s social network. He was lucky to have companions in his mission. He was a member of a community at the gate of the desert intently looking together at the horizon. Drogo had the advantage of an association with peers and the avoidance of social contact with others outside the community. We are local animals, interested in our immediate neighborhood—even if people far away consider us total idiots. Those homo sapiens are abstract and remote and we do not care about them because we do not run into them in elevators or make eye contact with them. Our shallowness can sometimes work for us.
It may be a banality that we need others for many things, but we need them far more than we realize, particularly for dignity and respect. Indeed, we have very few historical records of people who have achieved anything extraordinary without such peer validation—but we have the freedom to choose our peers. If we look at the history of ideas, we see schools of thought occasionally forming, producing unusual work unpopular outside the school. You hear about the Stoics, the Academic Skeptics, the Cynics, the Pyrrhonian Skeptics, the Essenes, the Surrealists, the Dadaists, the anarchists, the hippies, the fundamentalists. A school allows someone with unusual ideas with the remote possibility of a payoff to find company and create a microcosm insulated from others. The members of the group can be ostracized together—which is better than being ostracized alone.
If you engage in a Black Swan–dependent activity, it is better to be part of a group.
When to use it
Starting a business with an innovative product: find a community of fellow entrepreneurs to share the journey and validate your approach.
Pursuing a controversial academic theory: join a research group or school of thought that supports your line of inquiry.
Creating art that deviates from mainstream tastes: participate in an avant-garde movement or artist collective.
Adopting an unconventional lifestyle: connect with an intentional community or online group that shares your values.
FROM THEORY TO EVERYDAY LIFE
In practice
Drogo at the Bastiani Fortress
In Dino Buzzati's novel 'The Tartar Steppe,' the protagonist Giovanni Drogo is stationed at a remote fortress with a small group of fellow soldiers. Despite the monotony and lack of external recognition, the shared mission and mutual validation among the garrison sustain his sense of purpose and dignity.
Historical Schools of Thought
The Stoics, Academic Skeptics, Surrealists, and other schools formed tight-knit communities that insulated members from outside criticism. This allowed them to develop and pursue unconventional ideas that would have been difficult to sustain alone.
A MOMENT TO REFLECT
Put it to work.
What communities have you been part of that validated your unconventional ideas?
How can you build a 'Bastiani Fortress' for your own projects or pursuits?
Think of a time you pursued an idea alone versus with a group. How did the presence of peers affect your motivation and persistence?
CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION
Source texts
- The Black Swan The Impact of the Highly Improbable With a new section On Robustness and Fragility (Nassim Nicholas Taleb)