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[A] theory is a very dangerous thing to have.

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
Theory
Dangerous
Thing

More quotes by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

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We favor the visible, the embedded, the personal, the narrated, and the tangible we scorn the abstract.
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Never take advice from someone wearing a tie.
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Is the economy something organic or is it something engineered? I think it's closer to the organic. You harm it by artificially suppressing volatility in it.
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A man without a heroic bent starts dying at the age of thirty.
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If my detractors knew me better they would hate me even more.
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The book is the only medium left that hasn't been corrupted by the profane.
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Heroes are heroes because they are heroic in behavior, not because they won or lost.
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Anything that provides you with very, very stable income, very stable conditions, maybe generally stable, that often, it masks real risks, risks of blow-ups.
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Your reputation is harmed the most by what you say to defend it.
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It is also naïve empiricism to provide, in support of some argument, series of eloquent confirmatory quotes by dead authorities. By searching, you can always find someone who made a well-sounding statement that confirms your point of view and, on every topic, it is possible to find another dead thinker who said the exact opposite.
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The difference between slaves in Roman and Ottoman days and today's employees is that slaves did not need to flatter their boss.
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Decomposition, for most, starts when they leave the free, social, and uncorrupted college life for the solitary confinement of professions and nuclear families.
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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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I suppose that the main benefit of being rich (over just being independent) is to be able to despise rich people (a good concentration of whom you find in glitzy ski resorts) without any sour grapes. It is even sweeter when these farts don't know that you are richer than they are.
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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 traits I respect are erudition and the courage to stand up when half-men are afraid for their reputation. Any idiot can be intelligent.
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A good maxim allows you to have the last word without even starting a conversation.
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Aesthetics, ethics, and many good things in humans are contagious.
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Probability is not about the odds, but about the belief in the existence of an alternative outcome, cause, or motive.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
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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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