For the ancients, forecasting historical events was an insult to the God(s); for me, it is an insult to man—that is, for some, to science. - Nassim Nicholas Taleb

The first heuristic addresses the asymmetry in rewards and punishment, or transfer of fragility between individuals. Ralph Nader has a simple rule: people voting for war need to have at least one descendant (child or grandchild) exposed to combat. For the Romans, engineers needed to spend some time under the bridge they built — something that should be required of financial engineers today. The English went further and had the families of the engineers spend time with them under the bridge after it was built.

Just as no monkey is as good-looking as the ugliest of humans, no academic is worthier than the worst of the creators

When we want to do something while unconsciously certain to fail, we seek advice so we can blame someone else for the failure.