Quote

I remind myself of Einstein's remark that common sense is nothing but a collection of misconceptions acquired by age 18.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Collections
Remind
Misconceptions
Age
Remark
Common
Einstein
Sense
Misconception
Nothing
Remarks
Acquired
Collection

More quotes by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Image
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
Image
Let me be more aggressive: we are largely better at doing than we are at thinking, thanks to antifragility. I’d rather be dumb and antifragile than extremely smart and fragile, any time.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Image
What is nonmeasurable and nonpredictable will remain nonmeasurable and nonpredictable ... no matter how much hate mail I get.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Image
The fastest way to become rich is to socialize with the poor the fastest way to become poor is to socialize with the rich.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Image
We should probably stop trading derivatives, anything more complex than regular options ... I am an options trader, and I don't understand options. How do you want a regulator to understand them?
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Image
Banks have never made money in the history of banking, losing the equivalent of all their past profits periodically - while bankers strike it rich.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Image
As countries get rich they start increasing education and the very educated people tend to not like trial and error, because they think they're obligated to use the body of knowledge they have.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Image
When some systems are stuck in a dangerous impasse, randomness and only randomness can unlock them and set them free.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Image
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.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Image
Charm is the ability to insult people without offending them nerdiness the reverse
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Image
When I trade, I don't have an agency problem I have my neck on the line. When a bank or banker trades, it's not his neck on the line.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Image
The American people will eventually get hurt by this accumulated deficit. That's the problem. We have too much deficit. We have to find a solution.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Image
Education makes the wise slightly wiser, but it makes the fool vastly more dangerous.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Image
An erudite is someone who displays less than he knows a journalist or consultant the opposite.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Image
It does not matter how frequently something succeeds if failure is too costly to bear.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Image
You get pseudo-order when you seek order you only get a measure of order and control when you embrace randomness.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Image
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.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Image
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
Image
If something is going on, I hear about it. I like to talk to people, I socialise. Television is a waste of time. Human contact is what matters.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Image
You want to be yourself, idiosyncratic the collective (school, rules, jobs, technology) wants you generic to the point of castration.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb