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Wit seduces by signaling intelligence without nerdiness.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

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Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Age: 64
Born: 1960
Born: September 11
Author
Economist
Essayist
Mathematician
Philosopher
Statistician
University Teacher
Writer
Nassim Nicholas Najib Taleb
Nassim Taleb
Signaling
Seduces
Seducing
Wit
Intelligence
Without

More quotes by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

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You get pseudo-order when you seek order you only get a measure of order and control when you embrace randomness.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
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Never ask a trader if he is profitable: you can easily see it in his gesture and gait.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
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You want to favor systems that benefit from error, disorder, variability and things like that. You want to favor these systems and unfortunately, when - there's something I call the Soviet Illusion. The more the government becomes intrusive, the more things have to follow a script, and it can't handle this kind of system.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
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A good maxim allows you to have the last word without even starting a conversation.
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When you write, you don't have the social constraints of having people in front of you, so you talk about abstract matters.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
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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
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Debt is a mistake between lender and borrower, and both should suffer.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
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The person you are most afraid to contradict is yourself.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
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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
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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
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Economics make homeopath and alternative healers look empirical and scientific.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
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The best test of whether someone is extremely stupid (or extremely wise) is whether financial and political news makes sense to him.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
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The traits I respect are erudition and the courage to stand up when half-men are afraid for their reputation. Any idiot can be intelligent.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
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What fools call wasting time is most often the best investment.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
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History is opaque. You see what comes out, not the script that produces events, [...] The generator of historical events is different from the events themselves, much as the minds of the gods cannot be read just by witnessing their deeds.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
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Modernity widened the distance between the sensational and the relevant.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
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The fragile wants tranquility, the antifragile grows from disorder, and the robust doesn't care too much.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
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Failure saves lives. In the airline industry, every time a plane crashes the probability of the next crash is lowered by that. The Titanic saved lives because we're building bigger and bigger ships. So these people died, but we have effectively improved the safety of the system, and nothing failed in vain.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
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A mistake is not something to be determined after the fact, but in the light of the information until that point.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
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Forecasting by bureaucrats tends to be used for anxiety relief rather than for adequate policy making.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb