I don't know anyone on Wall Street who goes to work every day thinking of anything but how to increase their bonus. - Nassim Nicholas Taleb

We do not need to be rational and scientific when it comes to the details of our daily life — only in those that can harm us and threaten our survival. Modern life seems to invite us to do the exact opposite; become extremely realistic and intellectual when it comes to such matters as religion and personal behavior, yet as irrational as possible when it comes to matters ruled by randomness (say, portfolio or real estate investments). I have encountered colleagues, “rational,” no-nonsense people, who do not understand why I cherish the poetry of Baudelaire and Saint-John Perse or obscure (and often impenetrable) writers like Elias Canetti, J. L. Borges, or Walter Benjamin. Yet they get sucked into listening to the “analyses” of a television “guru,” or into buying the stock of a company they know absolutely nothing about, based on tips by neighbors who drive expensive cars.

Populism: democratic participation by the uneducated population when conflicts w/that of the miseducated one.

It is my great hope someday to see science and decision makers rediscover what the ancients have always known, namely that our highest currency is respect.