Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Nassim Nicholas Talebis a Lebanese-American essayist, scholar, statistician, former trader, and risk analyst, whose work focuses on problems of randomness, probability, and uncertainty. His 2007 book The Black Swan was described in a review by the Sunday Times as one of the twelve most influential books since World War II...
NationalityLebanese
ProfessionScientist
CountryLebanon
Nassim Nicholas Taleb quotes about
destiny risk cash
It was obvious that their profits were simply cash borrowed from destiny with some random payback time.
swans long black
In economic life and history more generally, just about everything of consequence comes from black swans; ordinary events have paltry effects in the long term.
firsts twenties utopia
The twentieth century was the bankruptcy of the social utopia; the twenty-first will be that of the technological one.
outcomes lasts execution
Wear your best for your execution and stand dignified. Your last recourse against randomness is how you act - if you can't control outcomes, you can control the elegance of your behaviour. You will always have the last word.
risk exposure no-point
At no point in history have so many non-risk-takers, that is, those with no personal exposure, exerted so much control.
risk caves research
Much of the research into humans' risk-avoidance machinery shows that it is antiquated and unfit for the modern world; it is made to counter repeatable attacks and learn from specifics. If someone narrowly escapes being eaten by a tiger in a certain cave, then he learns to avoid that cave.
succeed bears doe
It does not matter how frequently something succeeds if failure is too costly to bear.
may tables reliability
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 the table to measure the ruler.
writing
Most so-called writers keep writing and writing with the hope, some day, to find something to say.
opposites journalist consultants
An erudite is someone who displays less than he knows; a journalist or consultant the opposite.
winning trying argument
Suckers try to win arguments, nonsuckers try to win.
portfolios opinion recommendations
Never ask anyone for their opinion, forecast, or recommendation. Just ask them what they have—or don’t have—in their portfolio.
world want
I want to live happily in a world I don’t understand.
events cases worst
But they never notice the following inconsistency: this so-called worst-case event, when it happened, exceeded the worst case at the time.