“ The degeneration of philosophical schools in its turn is the consequence of the mistaken belief that one can philosophize without having been compelled to philosophize by problems outside philosophy.… Nassim Nicholas Taleb
“ The defender of the dogmas of modern finance and efficient markets started a fund that took advantage of market inefficiencies! It is as if the Pope converted to Islam. Nassim Nicholas Taleb
“ The chief ethical rule is the following: Thou shalt not have antifragility at the expense of the fragility of others. Nassim Nicholas Taleb
“ The Pyrrhonian skeptics were docile citizens who followed customs and traditions whenever possible, but taught themselves to systematically doubt everything, and thus attain a level of serenity. But w… Nassim Nicholas Taleb
“ THE ONE THING YOU MUST DOThere is one thing in this world you must never forget to do. If you forget everything else and not this, there's nothing to worry about, but if you remember everything else a… Nassim Nicholas Taleb
“ Someone with a linear payoff needs to be right more than 50 percent of the time. Someone with a convex payoff, much less. The hidden benefit of antifragility is that you can guess worse than random an… Nassim Nicholas Taleb
“ So let us call here the teleological fallacy the illusion that you know exactly where you are going, and that you knew exactly where you were going in the past, and that others have succeeded in the p… Nassim Nicholas Taleb
“ Since procrastination is a message from our natural willpower via low motivation, the cure is changing the environment, or one’s profession, by selecting one in which one does not have to fight one’s… Nassim Nicholas Taleb
“ Silver Rule in intellectual debates. You can criticize either what a person said or what a person meant. The former is more sensational, hence lends itself more readily to dissemination. The mark of a… Nassim Nicholas Taleb
“ Pure generosity is when you help the ingrate. Every other form is self-serving. Nassim Nicholas Taleb
“ Our tendency to perceive—to impose—narrativity and causality are symptoms of the same disease—dimension reduction. Moreover, like causality, narrativity has a chronological dimension and leads to the… Nassim Nicholas Taleb
“ Or take the health category. Adding is on the left, removing to the right. Removing medication, or some other unnatural stressor—say, gluten, fructose, tranquilizers, nail polish, or some such substan… Nassim Nicholas Taleb
“ One conceivable way to discriminate between a scientific intellectual and a literary intellectual is by considering that a scientific intellectual can usually recognize the writing of another but that… Nassim Nicholas Taleb
“ Not seeing a tsunami or an economic event coming is excusable; building something fragile to them is not. Nassim Nicholas Taleb
“ Noi, membrii varietății umane a primatelor, suntem însetați de reguli, deoarece trebuie să reducem dimensiunile problemelor astfel încât acestea să încapă în capul nostru. Sau, din păcate, așa încât s… Nassim Nicholas Taleb
“ Nobody knew anything, but elite thinkers thought that they knew more than the rest because they were elite thinkers, and Nassim Nicholas Taleb
“ My being here is a consequential low-probability occurrence, and I tend to forget it. Nassim Nicholas Taleb
