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The rationalist imagines an imbecile-free society the empiricist and imbecile-proof one, or even better, a rationalist-proof one.

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
Better
Imbecile
Even
Imbeciles
Imagines
Atheist
Proof
Imagine
Society
Empiricist
Free
Rationalist

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Antifragility is beyond resilience or robustness. The resilient resists shocks and stays the same the antifragile gets better.
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If I could predict what my day would exactly look like, I would feel a little bit dead.
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What we need to do is break the financial community's grip on society.
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Comfort makes you weaker. We need some variability, some stressors. Not too much, but just enough.
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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.
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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.
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Asking science to explain life and vital matters is equivalent to asking a grammarian to explain poetry.
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It was obvious that their profits were simply cash borrowed from destiny with some random payback time.
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By setting oneself totally free of constraints, free of thoughts, free of this debilitating activity called work, free of efforts, elements hidden in the texture of reality start staring at you then mysteries that you never thought existed emerge in front of your eyes.
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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.
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Another definition of modernity: conversations can be more and more completely reconstructed with clips from other conversations taking place at the same time on the planet.
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I lift heavy weights and sprint, but I am so bad at it that I develop severe injuries.
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Banking is a very treacherous business because you don't realize it is risky until it is too late. It is like calm waters that deliver huge storms.
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You have family-owned businesses that have been around for 500 years. You cannot name a corporation that survives intact for even a few decades.
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Forecasting by bureaucrats tends to be used for anxiety relief rather than for adequate policy making.
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A washing machine needs constant maintenance. It doesn't want any harm. It wants tranquility, and you need someone to - you're not going to harm it by continuously monitoring it and adjusting it.
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Your reputation is harmed the most by what you say to defend it.
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When some systems are stuck in a dangerous impasse, randomness and only randomness can unlock them and set them free.
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Injecting some confusion stabilizes the system.
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I no longer care about the financial system. I gave them my roadmap. OK? Thanks, bye. I've no idea what's going on. I'm disconnected. I'm totally disengaged.
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