Much of aging comes from a misunderstanding of the effect of comfort. Nassim Nicholas Taleb More Quotes by Nassim Nicholas Taleb More Quotes From Nassim Nicholas Taleb If humans fight the last war, nature fights the next one. Nassim Nicholas Taleb lastsfightingwar I am happy everywhere except in places where I see glitz and rich farts. I am happiest in Brooklyn, where the concentration of rich farts is minimal. Nassim Nicholas Taleb fartbrooklynrich Never ask a trader if he is profitable: you can easily see it in his gesture and gait. Nassim Nicholas Taleb gesturesfinancebusiness Probability is not about the odds, but about the belief in the existence of an alternative outcome, cause, or motive. Nassim Nicholas Taleb alternativesoutcomesodds An elephant is vastly more efficient, metabolically, than a mouse. It's the same for a megacity as opposed to a village. But an elephant can break a leg very easily, whereas you can toss a mouse out of a window and it'll be fine. Size makes you fragile. Nassim Nicholas Taleb break-a-legelephantsgrowth Alan Greenspan is unskilled; you don't take the unskilled seriously. Nassim Nicholas Taleb Don't disturb complicated systems that have been around for a very long time. We don't understand their logic. Don't pollute the planet. Leave it the way we found it, regardless of scientific 'evidence'. Nassim Nicholas Taleb logiclongway I always remind myself that what one observes is at best a combination of variance and returns, not just returns. Nassim Nicholas Taleb variancecombinationreturn The difference between slaves in Roman and Ottoman days and today's employees is that slaves did not need to flatter their boss. Nassim Nicholas Taleb bossdifferencesneeds The number of managers with great track records in a given market depends far more on the number of people who started in the investment business (in place of going to dental school), rather than on their ability to produce profits. Nassim Nicholas Taleb tracknumbersschool Rationalism crashes in the tails. Nassim Nicholas Taleb rationalismcrashtails Economics make homeopath and alternative healers look empirical and scientific. Nassim Nicholas Taleb economicsalternativeslooks In science you need to understand the world; in business you need others to misunderstand it. Nassim Nicholas Taleb worldneeds Success is about honour, feeling morally calibrated, absence of shame, not what some newspaper defines from an external metric. Nassim Nicholas Taleb metricsshamefeelings You need a story to displace a story. Nassim Nicholas Taleb storiesneeds It is remarkable how fast and how effectively you can construct a nationality with a flag , a few speeches, and a national anthem; to this day I avoid the label "Lebanese," preferring the less restrictive "Levantine" designation. Nassim Nicholas Taleb flagslabelsspeech I remind myself of Einstein's remark that common sense is nothing but a collection of misconceptions acquired by age 18. Nassim Nicholas Taleb common-sensecollectionsage Private equity has absolutely no reason to exist. The private equity holder has all the upside and the banks all the downside. Nassim Nicholas Taleb financebusinessreason I want them poor and they deserve to be poor. You can't have capitalism without punishment. Nassim Nicholas Taleb punishmentbusinesswant The only valid political system is one that can handle an imbecile in power without suffering from it Nassim Nicholas Taleb imbecilespoliticalsuffering
