Further, in writing, I feel corrupt and unethical if I have to look up a subject in a library as part of… — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
Social science means inventing a certain brand of human we can understand. — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
Read books are far less valuable than unread ones. The library should contain as much of what you do not know as… — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
By all means, avoid words—threats, complaints, justification, narratives, reframing, attempts to win arguments, supplications; avoid words! — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
If you have more than one reason to do something (choose a doctor or veterinarian, hire a gardener or an employee, marry… — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
In social policy, when we provide a safety net, it should be designed to help people take more entrepreneurial risks, not to… — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
The same past data can confirm a theory and its exact opposite! If you survive until tomorrow, it could mean that either… — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
Wittgenstein's ruler: Unless you have confidence in the ruler's reliability, if you use a ruler to measure a table you may also be using… — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
In politics we face the choice between warmongering, nation-state loving, big-business agents on one hand; and risk-blind, top-down, epistemic arrogant big servants of large… — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
My nightmare scenario is that the government saves Citibank once again, as well as the other banks, and business resumes as usual. Then, the… — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
Using, as an excuse, others' failure of common sense is in itself a failure of common sense. — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
You know, children philosophize more than adults - and they are critical of adults. — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
“Suckers think that you cure greed with money, addiction with substances, expert problems with experts, banking with bankers, economics with economists, and debt crises… — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
“One needs to go out and buy a lottery ticket in order to win. Does it mean that the work involved in the trip… — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
Individuals should think about the worst-case scenarios and plan for them. The world will be crazier than you think it will be. Put money… — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
“If you are looking for your misplaced wallet in your living room, in a trial and error mode, you exercise rationality by not looking… — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
“Most humans manage to squander their free time, as free time makes them dysfunctional, lazy, and unmotivated—the busier they get, the more active they… — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
We learn the most from fools ... yet we pay them back with the worst ingratitude. — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
