“ It is as if we are doomed to be deceived by the most superficial part of things, the packaging, the gift wrapping. This is why we don’t see antifragility in places that are obvious, too obvious. It is… Nassim Nicholas Taleb
“ It is also related to a problem called denigration of history, as gamblers, investors, and decision-makers feel that the sorts of things that happen to others would not necessarily happen to them. Nassim Nicholas Taleb
“ Injecting some confusion stabilizes the system. Indeed, confusing people a little bit is beneficial—it is good for you and good for them. For an application of the point in daily life, imagine someone… Nassim Nicholas Taleb
“ In the old days, privilege came with obligations—except for the small class of intellectuals who served a patron or, in some cases, the state. You want to be a feudal lord—you will be first to die. Yo… Nassim Nicholas Taleb
“ In the complex world, the notion of cause itself is suspect; it is either nearly impossible to detect or not really defined—another reason to ignore newspapers, with their constant supply of causes fo… Nassim Nicholas Taleb
“ In science you need to understand the world; in business you need others to misunderstand it. Nassim Nicholas Taleb
“ In fact, the reason I felt immediately at home in America is precisely because American culture encourages the process of failure, unlike the cultures of Europe and Asia where failure is met with stig… Nassim Nicholas Taleb
“ If your private life conflicts with your intellectual opinion, it cancels your intellectual ideas, not your private life. Nassim Nicholas Taleb
“ If you want to understand how vapid are the current modernistic arguments (and understand your existential priorities), consider the difference between lions in the wild and those in captivity. Lions… Nassim Nicholas Taleb
“ If you want to accelerate someone’s death, give him a personal doctor. I don’t mean provide him with a bad doctor: just pay for him to choose his own. Any doctor will do. This may be the only possible… Nassim Nicholas Taleb
“ If you have more than one reason to do something (choose a doctor or veterinarian, hire a gardener or an employee, marry a person, go on a trip), just don’t do it. It does not mean that one reason is… Nassim Nicholas Taleb
“ If there is something in nature you don't understand, odds are it makes sense in a deeper way that is beyond your understanding. So there is a logic to natural things that is much superior to our own.… Nassim Nicholas Taleb
“ If the professor is not capable of giving a class without preparation, don’t attend. People should only teach what they have learned organically, through experience and curiosity…or get another job. Nassim Nicholas Taleb
“ If The Black Swan is about epistemic limitations, then, from this definition, we can see that it is not about some objectively defined phenomenon, like rain or a car crash—it is simply something that… Nassim Nicholas Taleb
“ If I could predict what my day would exactly look like, I would feel a little bit dead. Nassim Nicholas Taleb
“ I wonder why people don’t realize the simple truism, that is, the fooled by randomness effect: mistaking the merely associative for the causal, that is, if rich countries are educated, immediately inf… Nassim Nicholas Taleb
“ I suspect that they put Socrates to death because there is something terribly unattractive, alienating, and nonhuman in thinking with too much clarity. Nassim Nicholas Taleb
“ I suggest this passage from the German philosopher (this passage was detected, translated, and reviled by Karl Popper): Sound is the change in the specific condition of segregation of the material par… Nassim Nicholas Taleb
“ I propose that if you want a simple step to a higher form of life, as distant from the animal as you can get, then you may have to denarrate, that is, shut down the television set, minimize time spent… Nassim Nicholas Taleb
“ I noticed that very intelligent and informed persons were at no advantage over cabdrivers in their predictions, but there was a crucial difference. Cabdrivers did not believe that they understood as m… Nassim Nicholas Taleb
