Modernity inflicts a sucker narrative on activities; now we "walk for exercise," not "walk" with no justification; for hidden reasons. - Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Thirty-nine percent of Americans will spend a year in the top 5 percent of the income distribution, 56 percent will find themselves in the top 10 percent, and 73 percent will spend a year in the top 20 percent.

Never call someone an imbecile (or fucking idiot) unless he causes harm to others/system; there must be a moral dimension to insults.

In most disciplines... asymmetry does not matter. ...People in most fields ...do not have problems eliminating extreme values from their sample, when the difference in payoff between different outcomes is not significant ...A professor ...removes the ...s, and takes the average of the remaining ones, without ...being ...unsound. A casual weather forecaster does the same ...So people in finance borrow the technique and ignore infrequent events, not knowing that the effect ...can bankrupt a company.