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I always remind myself that what one observes is at best a combination of variance and returns, not just returns.

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
Return
Best
Always
Observes
Variance
Returns
Remind
Combination

More quotes by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

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This is the tragedy of modernity: as with neurotically overprotective parents, those trying to help are often hurting us the most.
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Never ask anyone for their opinion, forecast, or recommendation. Just ask them what they have—or don’t have—in their portfolio.
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Someone bemoaned that there were so few women in economics. But there are also very few men in economics.
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Probability is not a mere computation of odds on the dice or more complicated variants it is the acceptance of the lack of certainty in our knowledge and the development of methods for dealing with our ignorance.
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Read books are far less valuable than unread ones. The library should contain as much of what you do not know as your financial means, mortgage rates, and the currently tight real-estate market alow you to put there.
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The person you are most afraid to contradict is yourself.
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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.
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I hated school because I liked to daydream and the system tried to stop me from that.
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Stoicism is about the *domestication* of emotions, not their elimination.
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Don't ask the barber whether you need a haircut, and don't ask an academic if what he does is relevant.
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The more data we have, the more likely we are to drown in it.
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Experience is devoid of the cherry-picking that we find in studies.
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Just as being nice to the arrogant is no better than being arrogant toward the nice, being accommodating toward anyone committing a nefarious action condones it.
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My nightmare scenario is that the government saves Citibank once again, as well as the other banks, and business resumes as usual. Then, the next time the system breaks, it breaks much, much bigger.
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The fool generalizes the particular the nerd particularizes the general some do both and the wise does neither
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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.
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People used to wear ordinary clothes weekdays, and formal attire on Sunday. Today it is the exact reverse.
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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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The grandchildren should not bear the debts of the grandparents.
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If you're going to fail, you'd rather fail early than fail late in general.
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