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
risk surface courses
A system, artificially stabilized, and of course you have hidden risks under the surface, and you don't know where the risks are.
what-matters people serendipity
If something is going on, I hear about it. I like to talk to people, I socialise. Television is a waste of time. Human contact is what matters.
country thinking errors
As countries get rich they start increasing education and the very educated people tend to not like trial and error, because they think they're obligated to use the body of knowledge they have.
government next usual
My nightmare scenario is that the government saves Citibank once again, as well as the other banks, and business resumes as usual. Then, the next time the system breaks, it breaks much, much bigger.
people trying shows
People are much less interested in what you are trying to show them than what you are trying to hide.
giving information belief
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.
thinking volatility stability
Never think that lack of variability is stability. Don't confuse lack of volatility with stability, ever.
war years people
People have the problem of denial. This is one of the things I learned in Lebanon. Everybody who left Beirut when the war started, including my parents, said, 'Oh, its temporary.' It lasted 17 years! People tend to underestimate the gravity of these situations. That's how they work.
faces association social
Every social association that is not face-to-face is injurious to your health.
knowledge ideas ties
It's not a good idea to take a forecast from someone wearing a tie. If possible, tease people who take themselves and their knowledge too seriously.
resilience get-better resilient
Antifragility is beyond resilience or robustness. The resilient resists shocks and stays the same; the antifragile gets better.
grandchildren grandparent debt
The grandchildren should not bear the debts of the grandparents.
believe talking asking-why
Scientists don't know what they are talking about when they talk about religion. Religion has nothing to do with belief, and I don't believe it has any negative impact on people's lives outside of intolerance. Why do I go to church? It's like asking, why did you marry that woman? You make up reasons, but it's probably just smell. I love the smell of candles. It's an aesthetic thing.
next crash save-a-life
Failure saves lives. In the airline industry, every time a plane crashes the probability of the next crash is lowered by that.