Monday, February 27, 2012
The ultimate freedom lies in not having to explain “why” you did something. via The ultimate… | Facebook.
Monday, February 27, 2012
Life is about early detection of the reversal point beyond which belongings (say a house, country house, car, or business) start owning you. via Life is about early… | Facebook.
Monday, February 27, 2012
Never trust a statement that starts with “because”. via Never trust a… | Facebook.
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Get it while you can! People in the comment thread on his FB still hoping he re-posts the book1 pdf link from last week. (I will not be making the pdf available from here. Once NNT removes the link it’s gone.) Dear friends, I wonder if this section appears easy and fun to read to [...]
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Pharma is in the business of inventing diseases and drugs, but it is luckily more and more constrained by the explosive number of drug interractions nonlinearities. If they introduce 1000 drugs, they face ~500,000 new interractions, plus an extra 1000 x number of existing drugs… The system has remarkable abilities for selfdestruction. via Pharma is [...]
Friday, February 24, 2012
Anyone interested in my previous essays on Taleb can read them here and here. In this present essay, I would like to shape Taleb’s ideas in relation to two reality vectors – the film Donnie Darko and the concept of “summing over histories” deduced by theoretical physicist Richard Feynman. As I indicate above, a reality [...]
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Another expression of domain dependence: ask an U.S. citizen if some semi-governmental agency with a great deal of independence (and no interference from Congress) should control the price of cars, morning newspapers, and Malbec wine, its domain of specialty. They would jump in anger, as it appears to violate every principle the country stands for, [...]
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Diseases, conditions, and descriptions “discovered” over the past hundred years should be treated as purely invented or the result of diseases of civilization. The same with psychological classifications such as “type A personality”, “left brain”, “passive-aggressive” & other TED-style stereotypes). Actually I would go further: if it is not in Montaigne, it is neofake, neomania, [...]
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Unfortunately missed it. Later in the Facebook thread NNT says he’s going torepost tomorrow, but for now, the links are broken. Friends, I am putting the first few chapters, just to test how easy it is for you to “get into it”. Please report, thanks a million!http://www.fooledbyrandomness.com/book1.pdfwww.fooledbyrandomness.com via Friends, I am… | Facebook.
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
The reason fasting in its various forms is not practiced as the best medicine is because industry has not yet managed to make a profit from it. Try to generalize this very, very simple point to other substractive treatments and you will understand what we got ourselves into with modernity. via The reason fasting… | [...]
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Quite perplexing that those you have benefited the most from aren’t those who have tried to help you (say with “advice”) but rather those who have actively tried -but eventually failed – to harm you. (Chapter 2, overcompensation from stressors) via Quite perplexing… | Facebook.
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Someone who lies all the time is much more honest than someone who only lies on the occasion. via Someone who lies… | Facebook.
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Boredom is the most powerful bt detector.revised aphorism via Boredom is the most… | Facebook.
Thursday, February 16, 2012
No one can possibly be a failure (success) unless (if) he feels envy. via No one can possibly… | Facebook.
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Wow! 223 pages of Nassim Taleb’s technical papers in one pdf. This was made known to us through NNT”s website.View or download here.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
The capacity for boredom is the most underestimated of all human assets. via The capacity for… | Facebook.
Monday, February 13, 2012
People tend to whisper when they say the truth and raise their voice when they lie. via People tend to… | Facebook.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Bryan Appleyard is requesting caption ideas for a photo that includes NNT. My favorite so far… “Sorry, Sir, the chicken’s off today. Chef recommends the charred fillet of swan…” via Bryan Appleyard » Blog Archive » Caption Contest 1.HatTip to Dave Lull
Sunday, February 12, 2012
In addition to being a blogger I’m a domainer that has multiple accounts at Moniker.com and an account at SnapNames.com where I spend six figures a year, but to date I haven’t received a email from either Moniker.com or SnapNames.com telling me as a customer that the sites have been sold. Not an email. Not [...]
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Great stuff! And a hilarious illustration. HatTip to Dave Lull. 8) Tesco should be banned from paying bonuses. Here’s his argument: that that bailouts introduce the idea of unspoken government insurance — a very valuable policy, a safety net being provided for free to firms deemed ‘too big to fail’. He argues in Black Swan [...]
Sunday, February 12, 2012
To continue with the mismapping and mental displacement caused by press. The process of making mice look like elephants, has, as a necessary side effect, the result of turning real elephants into mice. via To continue with… | Facebook.
Saturday, February 11, 2012
ON OVERCOMPENSATION -One trick when giving lectures. I have been told by conference organizers and other rationalistic, empirically challenged fellows that one needs to be clear, deliver a crisp message, maybe even dance on the stage to get the attention of the crowd. Or speak with the fake articulations of T.V. announcers. Charlatans try sending [...]
Thursday, February 9, 2012
When Taleb held a public discussion with Cameron about debt two years ago, the admiration was mutual. Taleb described the then opposition leader as ‘the best thing we have left on this planet’. Even now he stands by that assessment. ‘I saw in him, then, someone who wants to rebuild society along the right model. [...]
Thursday, February 9, 2012
A simple exercise to understand why the world represented by the press is not the one in which we live: Consider that about 6,200 persons die every day in the United States, many from preventable causes. Compare to what people think from exposure to the media hurricanes, murders, freak accidents, etc.. Then generalize to about [...]
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Financial black swans driven by ultrafast machine ecology Neil Johnson, Guannan Zhao, Eric Hunsader, Jing Meng, Amith Ravindar, Spencer Carran, Brian TivnanSubmitted on 7 Feb 2012 Society’s drive toward ever faster socio-technical systems, means that there is an urgent need to understand the threat from ‘black swan’ extreme events that might emerge. On 6 May [...]
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