“In 1960 Taiwan had a much lower literacy rate than the Philippines and half the income per person; today Taiwan has ten… — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
“There is something nonphilosophical about investing one’s pride and ego into a “my house/ library/ car is bigger than that of others… — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
“Things that have worked for a long time are preferable - they are more likely to have reached their ergodic states. At… — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
“He provides the example of a philosopher who puzzles about the reality of time, but who nonetheless applies for a research grant… — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
Anything organic requires some dose of variability so it can adapt all the time, and fixing things is not a good idea. — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
“Imagine a speck of dust next to a planet a billion times the size of the earth. The speck of dust represents… — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
But they never notice the following inconsistency: this so-called worst-case event, when it happened, exceeded the worst case at the time. — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
“As a child of civil war, I disbelieve in structured learning—actually I believe that one can be an intellectual without being a… — 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
“In the long run everything with the most minute vulnerability breaks, given the ruthlessness of time.” — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
“I propose that if you want a simple step to a higher form of life, as distant from the animal as you… — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
It was obvious that their profits were simply cash borrowed from destiny with some random payback time. — Nassim Nicholas Taleb Copy Share Image
Probability and expectation are not the same. Its probability and probability times the pay off. — 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
