Quote

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.

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
Bigs
Missing
Largely
Political
Depends
Depend
Anything
Events
Ashamed
Always
Quite
Opportunities
Predictors
Economic
Errors
Outlandish
Almost
Miss
Cumulative
Turns
Surprise
Surprises
Opportunity
Financial
Clients

More quotes by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Image
Most people are sceptical about the wrong things and gullible about the wrong things.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Image
A good maxim allows you to have the last word without even starting a conversation.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Image
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.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Image
The sucker's trap is when you focus on what you know and what others don't know, rather than the reverse.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Image
Writing is the art of repeating oneself without anyone noticing.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Image
The fragile wants tranquility, the antifragile grows from disorder, and the robust doesn't care too much.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Image
A prophet is not someone with special visions, just someone blind to most of what others see
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Image
An erudite is someone who displays less than he knows a journalist or consultant the opposite.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Image
You don't become completely free by just avoiding being a slave you also need to avoid becoming a master.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Image
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.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Image
Realism is punishing. Probabilistic skepticism is worse.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Image
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.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Image
Few understand that procrastination is our natural defense, letting things take care of themselves and exercise their antifragility it results from some ecological or naturalistic wisdom, and is not always bad - at an existential level, it is my body rebelling against its entrapment. It is my soul fighting the Procrustean bed of modernity.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Image
We glorify those who left their names in history books at the expense of those contributors about whom our books are silent. We humans are not just a superficial race - we are a very unfair one.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Image
I want them poor and they deserve to be poor. You can't have capitalism without punishment.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Image
Paul Krugman is a danger to society!
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Image
A verbal threat is the most authentic certificate of impotence.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Image
If you are in banking and lending, surprise outcomes are likely to be negative for you.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Image
Heroes are heroes because they are heroic in behavior, not because they won or lost.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Image
If you're going to fail, you'd rather fail early than fail late in general.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb