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
risks
If you take risks and face your fate with dignity, there is nothing you can do that makes you small; if you don't take risks, there is nothing you can do that makes you grand, nothing.
Inequalities of wealth lead to a dispersion in wealth for all.
accounts catholic crusades deeply french greek sceptical school side
If you are an Arabic-speaking, Greek-Orthodox going to a French school it makes you deeply sceptical if you have to listen to three different accounts of the Crusades - one from the Muslim side, one from the Greek side and one from the Catholic side.
surplus
Governments that try to shoot for a surplus hardly ever reach it.
fails
Bailing out every bank that fails makes the system riskier, not safer.
Writing is sacred, other activities are profane, and I don't want them to corrupt my writing.
anyone banks bombs convincing listen sit telling tendency themselves time willing
I've been telling anyone willing to listen that banks have a tendency to sit on time bombs while convincing themselves that they are conservative and nonvolatile.
people rarely
People employed in financial institutions are rarely interesting and even more rarely likable.
consumers instance lending mortgage needed people
The mortgage crisis is a clear instance of consumers who needed protection. There was predatory lending to people who didn't know what they were doing.
art ceremonial fooled number randomness religion sceptical select
I select a very small number of things to be sceptical about, such as markets, and on these I am hypersceptic. But I want to be fooled by randomness in art. I want the ceremonial of religion; we are made for it.
body builds case disorder gain grow gym nature occasional starvation subject uses
Nature builds things that are antifragile. In the case of evolution, nature uses disorder to grow stronger. Occasional starvation or going to the gym also makes you stronger, because you subject your body to stressors and gain from them.
crazier freedom money scenarios
Individuals should think about the worst-case scenarios and plan for them. The world will be crazier than you think it will be. Put money away, and then you can live with much more freedom.
humans lack
We humans lack imagination, to the point of not even knowing what tomorrow's important things will look like.
wear
The key to wealth is that it doesn't matter. Once you've had it, you don't think anything of it; you can wear cheap watches.