Nassim Nicholas Taleb Quotes - Page 12

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• If I ask you to write down the last 4 digits of your social security number, and then take you out to lunch and ask you how many dentists there are in Manhattan, there's going to be a high correlation between those two numbers. What happens is that the number psychologically makes you feel confident.

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  Writing, Two, Lunch

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• We didn't get where we are thanks to the sissy notion of resilience.

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  Resilience, Thanks, Sissy

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb (2016). “Incerto 4-Book Bundle: Fooled by Randomness The Black Swan The Bed of Procrustes Antifragile”, p.31, Random House

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• History doesn't crawl; it leaps.

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  Investing, Leap

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• The grandchildren should not bear the debts of the grandparents.

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  Grandchildren, Grandparent, Debt

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• Scepticism is effortful and costly. It is better to be sceptical about matters of large consequences, and be imperfect, foolish and human in the small and the aesthetic.

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  Matter, Imperfect, Foolish

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• I lift heavy weights and sprint, but I am so bad at it that I develop severe injuries.

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  Weight, Injury, Heavy

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• Charm is the ability to insult people without offending them; nerdiness the reverse

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  Offending, People, Nerd

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb (2010). “The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms”, p.33, Random House

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• It is also naïve empiricism to provide, in support of some argument, series of eloquent confirmatory quotes by dead authorities. By searching, you can always find someone who made a well-sounding statement that confirms your point of view and, on every topic, it is possible to find another dead thinker who said the exact opposite.

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  Views, Opposites, Support

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb (2010). “The Black Swan: Second Edition: The Impact of the Highly ImprobableFragility"”, p.32, Random House

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• What we do today has nothing to do with capitalism or socialism. It is a crony type of system that transfers money to the coffers of bureaucrats.

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  Today, Socialism, Type

  "Chaos Is Good for You". Interview with Linda Geddes, www.slate.com. December 2, 2012.

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• Philosophers talk about truth and falsehood. People in life talk about payoff, exposure, and consequences (risks and rewards), hence fragility and antifragility. And sometimes philosophers and thinkers and those who study conflate Truth with risks and rewards.

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  People, Risk, Fragility

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb (2016). “Incerto 4-Book Bundle: Fooled by Randomness The Black Swan The Bed of Procrustes Antifragile”, p.347, Random House

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• But it remains the case that you know what is wrong with a lot more confidence than you know what is right.

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  Cases, Remains, Knows

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb (2010). “The Black Swan: Second Edition: The Impact of the Highly Improbable Fragility"”, p.58, Random House

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• I'm a private intellectual, not a public one.

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  Intellectual

  "Nassim Taleb: my rules for life". Interview With Carole Cadwalladr, www.theguardian.com. November 24, 2012.

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• Cumulative errors depend largely on the big surprises, the big opportunities. Not only do economic, financial, and political predictors miss them, but they are quite ashamed to say anything outlandish to their clients and yet events, it turns out, are almost always outlandish.

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  Opportunity, Errors, Political

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb (2010). “The Black Swan: Second Edition: The Impact of the Highly Improbable Fragility"”, p.149, Random House

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• Modernity needs to understand that being rich and becoming rich are not mathematically, personally, socially, and ethically the same thing.

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  Needs, Becoming, Rich

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb (2010). “The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms”, p.26, Random House

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• The government-sponsored institution Fannie Mae, when I look at its risks, seems to be sitting on a barrel of dynamite, vulnerable to the slightest hiccup. But not to worry: their large staff of scientists deemed these events "unlikely."

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  Government, Worry, Risk

  "The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable". Book by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, April 17, 2007.

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• It is often the mistakes of others that benefit the rest of us and, sadly, not them ... For the antifragile, harm from errors should be less than the benefits.

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  Mistake, Errors, Benefits

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb (2012). “Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder”, p.72, Random House

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• What kills me makes others stronger.

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  Stronger, Kill Me

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb (2016). “Incerto 4-Book Bundle: Fooled by Randomness The Black Swan The Bed of Procrustes Antifragile”, p.100, Random House

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• Any system that is deprived of its natural volatility, with government up (unintelligible) volatile, any system becomes very fragile.

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  Government, Natural, Volatility

  Source: www.pbs.org

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• Also, it's good to have more than one profession, in case your own profession goes out of style. A Wall Street trader who's also a belly dancer will do a lot better than a trader who winds up driving a taxi.

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  Wall, Wind, Dancing

  "'We still have the same disease'". Interview with Margaret Wente, www.theglobeandmail.com. September 13, 2009.

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• Further, in writing, I feel corrupt and unethical if I have to look up a subject in a library as part of the writing itself. This acts as a filter--it is the only filter. If the subject is not interesting enough for me to look it up independently, for my own curiosity or purposes, and I have not done so before, then I should not be writing about it at all, period. It does not mean that libraries (physical and virtual) are not acceptable; it means that they should not be the source of any idea.

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  Writing, Mean, Ideas

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb (2012). “Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder”, p.15, Random House

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• Much of the research into humans' risk-avoidance machinery shows that it is antiquated and unfit for the modern world; it is made to counter repeatable attacks and learn from specifics. If someone narrowly escapes being eaten by a tiger in a certain cave, then he learns to avoid that cave.

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  Risk, Caves, Research

  "Learning to Expect the Unexpected" by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, www.edge.org. April 19, 2004.

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• It's harder to say 'no' when you really mean it.

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  Mean, Harder, Really Mean

  "The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms". Book by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, 2010.

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• We have this culture of financialization. People think they need to make money with their savings rather with their own business. So you end up with dentists who are more traders than dentists. A dentist should drill teeth and use whatever he does in the stock market for entertainment.

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  Thinking, People, Entertainment

  "Taleb: Government Deficits Could Be the Next 'Black Swan'". Interview with Ben Steverman, www.bloomberg.com. July 26, 2010.

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• All of technology, really, is about maximizing free options.

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  Technology, Maximizing

  "Always expect the unexpected". Interview with James Surowiecki, www.wired.com. April 1, 2007.

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• Randomness works well in search sometimes better than humans.

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  Sometimes, Randomness, Wells

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb (2012). “Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder”, p.103, Random House

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