Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Luck is the grand equalizer.

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Please, don’t drive a school bus blindfolded.

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“We are social animals; hell is other people.”

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Don't cross a river if it is four feet deep on average.

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“Life is about execution rather than purpose.”

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Information is bad for knowledge.

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“bottom-up political systems, and”

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Paul Krugman is a danger to society!

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

A prophet is not someone with special visions, just someone blind to most of what others see

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Make sure that you are in a situation where the constant mistakes are small and can be used for something.

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“[...] what you see is likely to be less Black Swannish than what you do not see.”

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

You are rich if and only if money you refuse tastes better than money you accept.

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

To be completely cured of newspapers, spend a year reading the previous week's newspapers.

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

You don't become completely free by just avoiding being a slave; you also need to avoid becoming a master.

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Probability and expectation are not the same. Its probability and probability times the pay off.

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

If you are in banking and lending, surprise outcomes are likely to be negative for you.

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Switzerland is the perfect place where you have volatility at a municipal level that nothing up top - small units competing with…

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“I know that history is going to be dominated by an improbable event, I just don’t know what that event will be.”

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“Just as no monkey is as good-looking as the ugliest of humans, no academic is worthier than the worst of the creators”

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

The best way to measure the loss of intellectual sophistication - this "nerdification," to put it bluntly - is in the growing…

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

An ad hominem attack against an individual, not against an idea, is highly flattering. It indicates that the person does not have…

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“I believe that forcing researchers to eat their own cooking whenever possible solves a serious problem in science.”

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“This, perhaps, is true self-confidence: the ability to look at the world without the need to find signs that stroke one’s ego.fn3”

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“You can afford to be compassionate, lax, and courteous if, once in a while, when it is least expected of you, but…

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“Missing a train is only painful if you run after it! Likewise, not matching the idea of success others expect from you…

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“An observation that people who live permanently in an adoptive country tend to progressively generalize the bad and particularize the good, that…

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“The important difference between theory and practice lies precisely in the detection of the sequence of events and retaining the sequence in…

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

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

“Being an executive does not require very developed frontal lobes, but rather a combination of charisma, a capacity to sustain boredom, and…

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Nature builds things that are antifragile. In the case of evolution, nature uses disorder to grow stronger. Occasional starvation or going to…

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“I then completely gave up reading newspapers and watching television, which freed up a considerable amount of time (say one hour or…

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“Further, my characterization of a loser is someone who, after making a mistake, doesn’t introspect, doesn’t exploit it, feels embarrassed and defensive…

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“In fact their strength, as with over-specialized athletes, is the result of a deformity. I thought it was the same with people…

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“He is susceptible to conference room boredom and is incapable of talking to businessmen, particularly the run-of-the-mill variety. Nero is allergic to…

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“Some can be more intelligent than others in a structured environment—in fact school has a selection bias as it favors those quicker…

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“To see how transfer of antifragility works, consider two scenarios, in which the market does the same thing on average but following…

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“Never listen to a leftist who does not give away his fortune or does not live the exact lifestyle he wants others…

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“In an antique city-state, or a modern municipality, shame is the penalty for the violation of ethics—making things more symmetric. Banishment and…

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“In order to progress, modern society should be treating ruined entrepreneurs in the same way we honor dead soldiers, perhaps not with…

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“Assume that someone tells you that the probability of an event is exactly zero. You ask him where he got this from.…

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb