We tend to define "rude" less by the words used (what is said) than by the status of the recipient (to whom it is addressed). - Nassim Nicholas Taleb

You know you have influence when people start noticing your absence more than the presence of others.

What is surprising is not the magnitude of our forecast errors, but our absence of awareness of it. This is all the more worrisome when we engage in deadly conflicts: wars are fundamentally unpredictable (and we do not know it). Owing to this misunderstanding of the causal chains between policy and actions, we can easily trigger Black Swans thanks to aggressive ignorance-like a child playing with a chemistry kit.

We live to produce information, or improve on it. Nietzsche had the Latin pun aut liberi, aut libri — either children or books, both information that caries through the centuries…I am here to die a heroic death for the sake of the collective, to produce offspring (and prepare them for life and provide for them), or eventually, books, — my information, that is, my genes, the anti-fragile in me, should be the ones seeking immortality, not me. Then say goodbye, have a nice funeral in St. Sergius (Mar Sarkis) in Amioun, and, as the French say, place aux autres — make room for others (p. 370-371).