Only the autodidacts are free. Nassim Nicholas Taleb More Quotes by Nassim Nicholas Taleb More Quotes From Nassim Nicholas Taleb The narrative fallacy addresses our limited ability to look at sequences of facts without weaving an explanation into them, or, equivalently, forcing a logical link, an arrow of relationship, upon them. Explanations bind facts together. They make them all the more easily remembered; they help them make more sense. Where this propensity can go wrong is when it increases our impression of understanding. Nassim Nicholas Taleb arrows understanding together Suckers think that you cure greed with money, addiction with substances, expert problems with experts, banking with bankers, economics with economists, and debt crises with debt spending Nassim Nicholas Taleb addiction greed thinking Academia is to knowledge what prostitution is to love. Nassim Nicholas Taleb academia prostitution I hated school because I liked to daydream and the system tried to stop me from that. Nassim Nicholas Taleb daydreaming hated school My major hobby is teasing people who take themselves and the quality of their knowledge too seriously and those who don't have the guts to sometimes say: I don't know. Nassim Nicholas Taleb hobbies quality people History is opaque. You see what comes out, not the script that produces events, [...] The generator of historical events is different from the events themselves, much as the minds of the gods cannot be read just by witnessing their deeds. Nassim Nicholas Taleb events historical mind The Internet allows the small guy a global marketplace. But technology is harmful in the sense that we get too much information from it. Because of the web we get 10 times the amount of noise we ever got, which makes harmful fallacies far more likely. Nassim Nicholas Taleb technology guy noise Work hard, not in grunt work, but in chasing such opportunities and maximizing exposure to them. This makes living in big cities invaluable because you increase the odds of serendipitous encounters-you gain exposure to the envelope of serendipity. Nassim Nicholas Taleb hard-work odds opportunity If my detractors knew me better they would hate me even more. Nassim Nicholas Taleb hate-me hate ifs Stoicism is about the *domestication* of emotions, not their elimination. Nassim Nicholas Taleb stoicism elimination emotion If you roll dice, you know that the odds are one in six that the dice will come up on a particular side. So you can calculate the risk. But, in the stock market, such computations are bull - you don't even know how many sides the dice have! Nassim Nicholas Taleb investing risk odds If you let markets - in general, my belief is that if you let markets give you information, they'll give you the information rather than artificially prop up everything. Nassim Nicholas Taleb information belief giving Banking is a very treacherous business because you don't realize it is risky until it is too late. It is like calm waters that deliver huge storms. Nassim Nicholas Taleb storm too-late water My point taken further is that True and False (hence what we call "belief") play a poor, secondary role in human decisions; it is the payoff from the True and the False that dominates-and it is almost always asymmetric, with one consequence much bigger than the other, i.e., harboring positive and negative asymmetries (fragile or antifragile). Let me explain. Nassim Nicholas Taleb taken decision play If you're going to fail, you'd rather fail early than fail late in general. Nassim Nicholas Taleb late failing ifs We didn't get where we are thanks to the sissy notion of resilience. Nassim Nicholas Taleb sissy thanks resilience People have the problem of denial. This is one of the things I learned in Lebanon. Everybody who left Beirut when the war started, including my parents, said, 'Oh, its temporary.' It lasted 17 years! People tend to underestimate the gravity of these situations. That's how they work. Nassim Nicholas Taleb war people years It's not a good idea to take a forecast from someone wearing a tie. If possible, tease people who take themselves and their knowledge too seriously. Nassim Nicholas Taleb ties ideas knowledge Meditation is a way to be narcissistic without hurting anyone Nassim Nicholas Taleb narcissistic meditation hurt Half of the people lie with their lips; the other half with their tears Nassim Nicholas Taleb tears lying people
