Nassim Nicholas Taleb Quotes - Page 2

Quotes about:

• The inability to predict outliers implies the inability to predict the course of history

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  Inability, Outliers, Courses

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb (2016). “Incerto 4-Book Bundle: Fooled by Randomness The Black Swan The Bed of Procrustes Antifragile”, p.763, Random House

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• An elephant is vastly more efficient, metabolically, than a mouse. It's the same for a megacity as opposed to a village. But an elephant can break a leg very easily, whereas you can toss a mouse out of a window and it'll be fine. Size makes you fragile.

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  Break A Leg, Elephants, Growth

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• Someone who says "I am busy" is either declaring incompetence (and lack of control of his life) or trying to get rid of you.

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  Trying, Busy, Incompetence

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb (2010). “The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms”, p.29, Random House

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• An idea starts to be interesting when you get scared of taking it to its logical conclusion.

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  Ideas, Interesting, Scared

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb (2016). “Incerto 4-Book Bundle: Fooled by Randomness The Black Swan The Bed of Procrustes Antifragile”, p.1704, Random House

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• Learn to fail with pride - and do so fast and cleanly. Maximise trial and error - by mastering the error part.

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  Failure, Pride, Errors

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• People are much less interested in what you are trying to show them than what you are trying to hide.

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  People, Trying, Shows

  FaceBook post by Nassim Nicholas Taleb from Nov 11, 2013

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• They will envy you for your success, your wealth, for your intelligence, for your looks, for your status - but rarely for your wisdom.

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  Envy, Looks, Wealth

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb (2010). “The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms”, p.14, Random House

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• They think that intelligence is about noticing things are relevant (detecting patterns); in a complex world, intelligence consists in ignoring things that are irrelevant (avoiding false patterns)

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  Thinking, World, Patterns

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb (2016). “Incerto 4-Book Bundle: Fooled by Randomness The Black Swan The Bed of Procrustes Antifragile”, p.1783, Random House

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• A Stoic is someone who transforms fear into prudence, pain into transformation, mistakes into initiation, and desire into undertaking.

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  Pain, Mistake, Desire

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• You don't become completely free by just avoiding being a slave; you also need to avoid becoming a master.

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  Needs, Becoming, Slave

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

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• The person you are most afraid to contradict is yourself.

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  Persons

  "A Walk Through Paris With Nassim Nicholas Taleb" by Vivian Norris, www.huffingtonpost.com. January 13, 2011.

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• If you roll dice, you know that the odds are one in six that the dice will come up on a particular side. So you can calculate the risk. But, in the stock market, such computations are bull - you don't even know how many sides the dice have!

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  Odds, Risk, Investing

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• You find peace by coming to terms with what you don't know.

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  Peace, Finding Peace, Term

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• Things always become obvious after the fact

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  Facts, Obvious

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• Your reputation is harmed the most by what you say to defend it.

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  Reputation

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb (2010). “The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms”, p.14, Random House

  28 Copy quote

• When you ask people, 'What's the opposite of fragile?,' they tend to say robust, resilient, adaptable, solid, strong. That's not it. The opposite of fragile is something that gains from disorder.

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  Strong, Opposites, People

  "The Tavis Smiley Show" with Tavis Smiley, www.pbs.org. December 3, 2012.

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• Heroes are heroes because they are heroic in behavior, not because they won or lost.

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  Hero, Heroic, Behavior

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb (2016). “Incerto 4-Book Bundle: Fooled by Randomness The Black Swan The Bed of Procrustes Antifragile”, p.1465, Random House

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• Ideas come and go, stories stay.

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  Ideas, Stories, Black Swan

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb (2010). “The Black Swan: Second Edition: The Impact of the Highly Improbable Fragility"”, p.31, Random House

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• Modernity: we created youth without heroism, age without wisdom, and life without grandeur

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  Age, Heroism, Youth

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb (2010). “The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms”, p.31, Random House

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• Weak men act to satisfy their needs, stronger men their duties.

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  Men, Weak Man, Stronger

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb (2010). “The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms”, p.64, Random House

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• If there is something in nature you don't understand, odds are it makes sense in a deeper way that is beyond your understanding. So there is a logic to natural things that is much superior to our own. Just as there is a dichotomy in law: 'innocent until proven guilty' as opposed to 'guilty until proven innocent', let me express my rule as follows: what Mother Nature does is rigorous until proven otherwise; what humans and science do is flawed until proven otherwise.

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  Mother, Odds, Law

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb (2012). “Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder”, p.349, Random House

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• Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg didn't finish college. Too much emphasis is placed on formal education - I told my children not to worry about their grades but to enjoy learning.

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  Jobs, Children, College

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• You will be civilized on the day you can spend a long period doing nothing, learning nothing, and improving nothing, without feeling the slightest amount of guilt.

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  Long, Feelings, Guilt

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb (2016). “Incerto 4-Book Bundle: Fooled by Randomness The Black Swan The Bed of Procrustes Antifragile”, p.1728, Random House

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• Missing a train is only painful if you run after it! Likewise, not matching the idea of success others expect from you is only painful if that’s what you are seeking.

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  Running, Ideas, Missing

  "This column will change your life: do you own gadgets - or do they own you?" by Oliver Burkeman, www.theguardian.com. February 9, 2013.

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• Avoid losers. If you hear someone use the words 'impossible', 'never', 'too difficult' too often, drop him or her from your social network.

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  Motivational, Use, Impossible

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