Lebanese-American mathematical statistician, option trader, risk analyst and author (born 1960)
Nassim Nicholas Taleb (born 1 January 1960 in Amioun, Lebanon) is an essayist, epistemologist, researcher, and former practitioner of mathematical finance.
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.
Peace without justice is just submission.
If the professor is not capable of giving a class without preparation, don't attend. People should only teach what they have learned organically, through experience and curiosity or get another job.
There is no more unmistakable sign of failure than that of a middle-aged man boasting of his successes in college.
A sign of development for a country is in the lack of prestige for government officials.
ATTENTION SALARY PEOPLE: Next Friday when your guaranteed monthly paycheck is deposited, take a moment of gratitude for the entrepreneurs who took the risks so you get this risk-free income. Shaming an risk-taker for losing money is like shaming a soldier for losing a limb.
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Not everything that happens happens for a reason, but everything that survives survives for a reason.
you have a real life if and only if you do not compete with anyone in any of your pursuits
The problem is architects building structures to impress other architects --but plumbers don't act on impressing other plumbers. Any activity where agents impress peers (architects, academia) rather than satisfying the needs constituents ends up rotting.
Those who do not think that employment is systemic slavery are either blind or employed.
"Taleb's Skin In The Game is required reading. If you want to get anywhere in modern life and understand how modern systems work, then Skin In The Game would be near the top of my list to read." - Naval Ravikant (@naval)
Psychologists use "IQ" to politely put people & entire races in boxes with the label "idiots", and stick them there for a lifetime. They ruin people's careers and potentials. Politely. I call psychologists (& IQ mountebanks) idiots to their face. Not politely.
People focus on role models; it is more effective to find antimodels - people you don't want to resemble when you grow up.
The true hero in the Black Swan world is someone who prevents a calamity and, naturally, because the calamity did not take place, does not get recognition or a bonus for it.
Work destroys your soul by stealthily invading your brain during the hours not officially spent working; be selective about professions.