Simple heuristic: treat public intellectuals as BSvendors except those who hold unpopular opinions,expose frauds, take risks, curse publicly - Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Figured out why 99% of academics have to be misfit, 3rd rate intellectually, by construction. You observe, say in probabilistic matters, yuuge inconsistencies. When you point it out to them, they require a "reference". OK: write the fucking "reference".

They think that intelligence is about noticing things that are relevant (detecting patterns); in a complex world, intelligence consists in ignoring things that are irrelevant (avoiding false patterns).

Using, as an excuse, others’ failure of common sense is in itself a failure of common sense.