“ Todo lo que se necesita es una sola (y, por lo que me dicen, fea) ave negra.** Doy un paso adelante, dejando atrás esta cuestión lógico-filosófica, para entrar en la realidad empírica, la cual me obse… Nassim Nicholas Taleb
“ To be genuinely empirical is to reflect reality as faithfully as possible; to be honorable implies not fearing the appearance and consequences of being outlandish. Nassim Nicholas Taleb
“ Those who talk about books as commodities are inauthentic, just as those who collect acquaintances can be superficial in their friendships. A novel you like resembles a friend. You read it and reread… Nassim Nicholas Taleb
“ This, perhaps, is true self-confidence: the ability to look at the world without the need to find signs that stroke one’s ego.fn3 Nassim Nicholas Taleb
“ This is one of the many reasons that journalism may be the greatest plague we face today—as the world becomes more and more complicated and our minds are trained for more and more simplification. Nassim Nicholas Taleb
“ This is hard to accept in the age of the Internet. It has been very hard for me to explain that the more data you get, the less you know what’s going on, and the more iatrogenics you will cause. Peopl… 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 2… Nassim Nicholas Taleb
“ Things designed by people without skin in the game tend to grow in complication (before their final collapse). There is absolutely no benefit for someone in such a position to propose something simple… Nassim Nicholas Taleb
“ Things are always obvious after the fact. The civil servant was a very intelligent person, and this mistake is much more prevalent than one would think. It has to do with the way our mind handles hist… Nassim Nicholas Taleb
“ There is something nonphilosophical about investing one’s pride and ego into a my house/ library/ car is bigger than that of others in my category—it is downright foolish to claim to be first in one’s… Nassim Nicholas Taleb
“ There are secrets to our world that only practice can reveal, and no opinion or analysis will ever capture in full. Nassim Nicholas Taleb
“ The true hero in the Black Swan world is someone who prevents a calamity and, naturally, because the calamity did not take place, does not get recognition—or a bonus—for it. I will be taking the conce… Nassim Nicholas Taleb
“ The traits I respect are erudition and the courage to stand up when half-men are afraid for their reputation. Any idiot can be intelligent. Nassim Nicholas Taleb
“ The simpler, the better. Complications lead to multiplicative chains of unanticipated effects. Nassim Nicholas Taleb
“ The problem is that we humans are prone to the availability heuristic, by which the salient is mistaken for the statistical, and the conspicuous and emotional effect of an event makes us think it is o… Nassim Nicholas Taleb
“ The observation of the numerous misfortunes that attend all conditions forbids us to grow insolent upon our present enjoyments, or to admire a man's happiness that may yet, in course of time, suffer c… Nassim Nicholas Taleb
“ The number of cultured people dropped below some critical level. Suddenly the place became a vacuum. Brain drain is hard to reverse, and some of the old refinement may be lost forever. Nassim Nicholas Taleb
“ The mechanism is a probabilistic method called conditional information: Unless the source of the statement has extremely high qualifications, the statement will be more revealing of the author than th… Nassim Nicholas Taleb
“ The major problem with inference in general is that those whose profession is to derive conclusions from data often fall into the trap faster and more confidently than others. The more data we have, t… Nassim Nicholas Taleb
