Nassim Nicholas Taleb Quotes
Missing a train is only painful if you run after it! Likewise, not matching the idea of success others expect from you is only painful if that’s what you are seeking.
My biggest problem with modernity may lie in the growing separation of the ethical and the legal
A mistake is not something to be determined after the fact, but in the light of the information until that point
If you want to annoy a poet, explain his poetry.
You cannot do anything with knowledge unless you know where it stops, and the costs of using it.
A prophet is not someone with special visions, just someone blind to most of what others see
Those who do not think that employment is systemic slavery are either blind or employed.
Just as no monkey is as good-looking as the ugliest of humans, no academic is worthier than the worst of the creators
It took us a while to discover that we do effectively think, but that we more readily narrate backward in order to give ourselves the illusion of understanding, and give a cover to our past actions.
Globalization has created this interlocking fragility. At no time in the history of the universe has the cancellation of a Christmas order in New York meant layoffs in China.
Modernity: we created youth without heroism, age without wisdom, and life without grandeur
Only he who is free with his time is free with his opinion.
The next time you experience a blackout, take some solace by looking at the sky. You will not recognize it.
Being self-owned is a state of mind.
Know how to rank your beliefs not according to their plausibility but by the harm they may cause.
What organized dating sites fail to understand is that the people are far more interesting in what they don't say about themselves.
Probability and expectation are not the same. Its probability and probability times the pay off.
The author cites researcher David Howard's idea of post-traumatic growth. Howard contends that some individuals faced with a traumatic event actually develop new strength.
What I learned on my own I still remember
We should ban banks from risk-taking because society is going to pay the price.
The difference between technology and slavery is that slaves are fully aware that they are not free
The people I go after are the false experts, those who do not accept the limits of their knowledge.
A central argument is never a summary. It is more like a generator.
The problem of knowledge is that there are many more books on birds written by ornithologists than books on birds written by birds and books on ornithologists written by birds
In the past, only some of the males, but all of the females, were able to procreate. Equality is more natural for females.
If the past, by bringing surprises, did not resemble the past previous to it (what I call the past's past), then why should our future resemble our current past?
I drive a hybrid, moving into an electric car. I only drink tap water, never consume food that's travelled.
Love without sacrifice is like theft
To bankrupt a fool, give him information.
Suckers think that you cure greed with money, addiction with substances, expert problems with experts, banking with bankers, economics with economists, and debt crises with debt spending
They will envy you for your success, your wealth, for your intelligence, for your looks, for your status - but rarely for your wisdom.
English does not distinguish between arrogant-up (irreverence toward the temporarily powerful) and arrogant-down (directed at the small guy).
A theory is like medicine (or government): often useless, sometimes necessary, always self-serving, and on occasion lethal. So it needs to be used with care, moderation and close adult supervision.
Most info-Web-media-newspaper types have a hard time swallowing the idea that knowledge is reached (mostly) by removing junk from peoples heads
I'm in favour of religion as a tamer of arrogance. For a Greek Orthodox, the idea of God as creator outside the human is not God in God's terms. My God isn't the God of George Bush.
The problem is that our ideas are sticky: once we produce a theory, we are not likely to change our minds....
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.
We humans lack imagination, to the point of not even knowing what tomorrow's important things will look like.
There is a saying that bad traders divorce their spouse sooner than abandon their positions. Loyalty to ideas is not a good thing for traders, scientists - or anyone.
A prophet is not someone who first had an idea. He is the one to first believe in it and take it to its conclusion.
Doctors most commonly get mixed up between absence of evidence and evidence of abense
Why do we keep focusing on the minutiae, not the possible significant large events, in spite of the obvious evidence of their huge influence?
Meditation is a way to be narcissistic without hurting anyone
Wit seduces by signaling intelligence without nerdiness.
