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I disagree with the followers of Marx and those of Adam Smith: the reason free markets work is because they allow people to be lucky, thanks to aggressive trial and error, not by giving rewards or incentives for skill.

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
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Rewards
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People
Errors
Adam
Allow
Disagree
Tinkering
Skills
Aggressive
Marx
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Skill
Smith
Free
Error
Incentives
Reason
Trials
Trial
Giving
Thanks
Markets

More quotes by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

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[A] theory is a very dangerous thing to have.
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true humility is when you can surprise yourself more than others the rest is either shyness or good marketing
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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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The worst side effect of wealth is the social associations it forces on its victims, as people with big houses end up socializing with other people with big houses.
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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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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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Doctors most commonly get mixed up between absence of evidence and evidence of abense
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There are systems that use failure as fuel for improvement, where the cost of failure is small.
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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.
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The book is the only medium left that hasn't been corrupted by the profane.
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You will be civilized on the day you can spend a long period doing nothing, learning nothing, and improving nothing, without feeling the slightest amount of guilt.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
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You want to be yourself, idiosyncratic the collective (school, rules, jobs, technology) wants you generic to the point of castration.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
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The person you are most afraid to contradict is yourself.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
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Globalization has created this interlocking fragility. At no time in the history of the universe has the cancellation of a Christmas order in New York meant layoffs in China.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
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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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Never think that lack of variability is stability. Don't confuse lack of volatility with stability, ever.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
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If you let markets - in general, my belief is that if you let markets give you information, they'll give you the information rather than artificially prop up everything.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
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To succeed in life requires a total inability to do anything that makes you uncomfortable when you look at yourself in the mirror.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
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I don't know anyone on Wall Street who goes to work every day thinking of anything but how to increase their bonus.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
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What we need to do is break the financial community's grip on society.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb