Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Nassim Nicholas Talebis a Lebanese-American essayist, scholar, statistician, former trader, and risk analyst, whose work focuses on problems of randomness, probability, and uncertainty. His 2007 book The Black Swan was described in a review by the Sunday Times as one of the twelve most influential books since World War II...
NationalityLebanese
ProfessionScientist
CountryLebanon
book mediums profane
The book is the only medium left that hasn't been corrupted by the profane.
fun loser flaws
The characteristic feature of the loser is to bemoan, in general terms, mankind's flaws, biases, contradictions, and irrationality - without exploiting them for fun and profit
business finance reason
Private equity has absolutely no reason to exist. The private equity holder has all the upside and the banks all the downside.
skills errors people
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.
views opposites support
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.
opportunity errors political
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.
business gestures finance
Never ask a trader if he is profitable: you can easily see it in his gesture and gait.
mean harder really-mean
It's harder to say no when you really mean it.
becoming needs rich
Modernity needs to understand that being rich and becoming rich are not mathematically, personally, socially, and ethically the same thing.
wise nerd fool
The fool generalizes the particular; the nerd particularizes the general; some do both; and the wise does neither
sunday clothes people
People used to wear ordinary clothes weekdays, and formal attire on Sunday. Today it is the exact reverse.
news sugar daily-news
Daily news and sugar confuse our system in the same manner.
business want derivatives
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?
beautiful people agitation
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.