We live in a time when being dumb is reward and being smart is counter-culture. If one makes a claim for harbouring a disinterested approach to truth, then one needs to explore ideas beyond one’s ideological reservation, most of which have long since become barren and infertile through infelicitous activity. It used to be that being liberal was punkishly…
Nassim Nicholas Taleb gives the Platonic rationalist “elites” a mega bitch slap (Original source here). Supplemented by the recent lunacy as per below, I suspect that though philosophers (rightly so) got their knickers in a twist a couple of years ago when deGrasse Tyson slammed the value of philosophy, they’d be well on board with this…
I’ve been singing the praises of Glenn Loury and John McWhorter of Blogging Heads (“Where great minds don’t think alike”) here and here. Another channel that is doing terrific work in the fight against illiberalism and its most conspicuous manifestation, i.e. the suffocation of free speech, is The Saad Truth. He has had some fascinating guests who, as…
In a world overpopulated with nth rate punditry (i.e. bad faith public intellectuals) I am of the view that one of the very few who rises above the crowd is Nassim Nicholas Taleb. He is truly independent-minded, not in any ideological or financial pocket, has theoretic/practical credibility and is the most cultivated of men. He cuts…
John Gray reviews Dominic Johnson’s God Is Watching You: How the Fear of God Makes Us Human. Though I haven’t read this book, based upon this review the title and the subtitle “How the Fear of God Makes Us Human” seem to be the wrong way round. Indeed, the main title seems superfluous. But first,…
Aron strikes me as the very model of a responsible intellectual, a social philosopher of intellectual power and prudence who served his society with great courage and considerable style. — John A. Hall. The Importance of Being Civil: The Struggle for Political Decency, Princeton University Press, 2013, p. 105 Couldn’t put it better. Take a moment…
Humiliate people who define success in any other way than honor. In the end realize that you are only as valuable as the risks you are taking for the sake of others. Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Nassim Nicholas Taleb has freely made available a collection of his lectures. asymmetric exposuresDecision makingfat tailsfragilityNassim Nicholas Talebprobabilitysilent risk
Nassim Taleb talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about his recent paper (with Constantine Sandis) on the morality and effectiveness of “skin in the game.” When decision makers have skin in the game–when they share in the costs and benefits of their decisions that might affect others–they are more likely to make prudent decisions than…
H/T to Fred Morgan for this: Also see UNDERSTANDING IS A POOR SUBSTITUTE FOR CONVEXITY (ANTIFRAGILITY) antifragileBlack SwanconvexityLuckNassim Nicholas Taleb
manwithoutqualities 