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Asking science to explain life and vital matters is equivalent to asking a grammarian to explain poetry.

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
Matter
Life
Equivalent
Vital
Explain
Matters
Asking
Poetry
Science

More quotes by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

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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.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
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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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Private equity has absolutely no reason to exist. The private equity holder has all the upside and the banks all the downside.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
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Experience is devoid of the cherry-picking that we find in studies.
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.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
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Older people are most beautiful when they have what is lacking in the young: poise, erudition, wisdom, phronesis, and this post-heroic absence of agitation.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
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If my detractors knew me better they would hate me even more.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
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The psychologist Gerd Gigerenzer has a simple heuristic. Never ask the doctor what you should do. Ask him what he would do if he were in your place. You would be surprised at the difference
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
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If I could predict what my day would exactly look like, I would feel a little bit dead.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
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true humility is when you can surprise yourself more than others the rest is either shyness or good marketing
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
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If you're going to fail, you'd rather fail early than fail late in general.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
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Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg didn't finish college. Too much emphasis is placed on formal education - I told my children not to worry about their grades but to enjoy learning.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
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But it remains the case that you know what is wrong with a lot more confidence than you know what is right.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
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It was obvious that their profits were simply cash borrowed from destiny with some random payback time.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
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The person you are most afraid to contradict is yourself.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
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It has been more profitable for us to bind together in the wrong direction than to be alone in the right one.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
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Aesthetics, ethics, and many good things in humans are contagious.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
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It's harder to say 'no' when you really mean it.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
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People focus on role models it is more effective to find antimodels - people you don't want to resemble when you grow up
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
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Scepticism is effortful and costly. It is better to be sceptical about matters of large consequences, and be imperfect, foolish and human in the small and the aesthetic.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb