Because the bell curve ignores large deviations, cannot handle them, yet makes us confident that we have tamed uncertainty. Its
Basically this category would include those who think that the cure for obesity is to inform people that they should be healthy.
Avoid taking advice from someone who gives advice for a living, unless there is a penalty for their advice.
Aut tace aut loquere meliora silencio (only when the words outperform silence). These
Atât demersurile artistice, cât și cele științifice sunt produsul nevoii noastre de a reduce dimensiunile și de a impune lucrurilor o ordine. Gândiți-vă la lumea din jur, încărcată de trilioane de det...
At the end, what matters is the strength of the string—not the wealth and power of the dining party.
At no point in history have so many non-risk-takers, that is, those with no personal exposure, exerted so much control. The chief ethical rule is the following: Thou shalt not have antifragility at th...
Assume that you live in a town with two hospitals—one large, the other small. On a given day 60 percent of those born in one of the two hospitals are boys. Which hospital is it likely to be?
Aside from the decorum of ancient thought as opposed to the coarseness of fresh ink, I have spent some time phrasing the idea in the mathematics of evolutionary arguments and conditional probability....
As the skeptics’ main teaching was that nothing could be accepted with certainty, conclusions of various degrees of probability could be formed, and these supplied a guide to conduct.
As shown from the track record of the prophets: before you are proven right, you will be reviled; after you are proven right, you will be hated for a while, or, what’s worse, your ideas will appear to...
As an empiricist (actually a skeptical empiricist) I despise the moralizers beyond anything on this planet: I still wonder why they blindly believe in ineffectual methods. Delivering advice assumes th...
As a child of civil war, I disbelieve in structured learning—actually I believe that one can be an intellectual without being a nerd, provided one has a private library instead of a classroom, and spe...
As Yogi Berra said, In theory there is no difference between theory and practice; in practice there is.
Anything you do to optimize your work, cut some corners, or squeeze more efficiency out of it (and out of your life) will eventually make you dislike it. Artisans have their soul in the game. Primo, a...
Anything one needs to market heavily is necessarily either an inferior product or an evil one. And it is highly unethical to portray something in a more favorable light than it actually is.
Another way to view it: the iatrogenics is in the patient, not in the treatment. If the patient is close to death, all speculative treatments should be encouraged—no holds barred. Conversely, if the p...
And, as expected, via negativa is part of classical wisdom. For the Arab scholar and religious leader Ali Bin Abi-Taleb (no relation), keeping one’s distance from an ignorant person is equivalent to k...
An honest person will never commit criminal acts, but a criminal will readily engage in legal acts.
An essay is an impulsive meditation, not science reporting.