“Suckers think that you cure greed with money, addiction with substances, expert problems with experts, banking with bankers, economics with economists, and… — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
“It took us a while to discover that we do effectively think, but that we more readily narrate backward in order to… — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
Never, never, never think - that's one lesson you should have in life. Never think that lack of variability is stability. — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
Is the economy something organic or is it something engineered? I think it's closer to the organic. You harm it by artificially… — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
The world we live in is vastly different from the world we think we live in. — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
The irony of the process of thought control: the more energy you put into trying to control your ideas and what you… — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
“Entrepreneurs are selected to be just doers, not thinkers, and doers do, they don't talk.” — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
We have this culture of financialization. People think they need to make money with their savings rather with their own business. So… — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
A good rule of thumb is as follows: If the numbers come from somebody wearing a tie (Wall Street economist or analyst,… — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
Those who do not think that employment is systemic slavery are either blind or employed. — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
As countries get rich they start increasing education and the very educated people tend to not like trial and error, because they… — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
I don't read the papers; I stopped reading the papers. I read the papers only during periods of crisis, and I think… — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
Never think that lack of variability is stability. Don't confuse lack of volatility with stability, ever. — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
They think that intelligence is about noticing things are relevant (detecting patterns); in a complex world, intelligence consists in ignoring things that… — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
I don't know anyone on Wall Street who goes to work every day thinking of anything but how to increase their bonus. — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
Let me be more aggressive: we are largely better at doing than we are at thinking, thanks to antifragility. I’d rather be… — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
We should reward people, not ridicule them, for thinking the impossible. — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
They are born, put in a box; they go home to live in a box; they study by ticking boxes; they go… — 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
