Category Archives: Books

The Secret of Fatima

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The Secret of Fatima
5.0 out of 5 stars James Bond as a Catholic Priest, April 5, 2016
Review By
N N Taleb
This review is from: The Secret of Fatima (Kindle Edition)
Masterly! This is the page turner par excellence; every new page brings some surprise and it was impossible for me to put the book down. I even read some of it during elevator rides, not being able to resist. And truly sophisticated: Nobody but Peter Tanous would have imagined to cross James Bond with a Catholic priest.”

HatTip to Dave Lull

Exploring the Practice of Antifragility

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Hello,

Really appreciate http://www.blackswanreport.com/blog/ . . .

During 2015, as a group of practitioners who use “antifragility” we hosted a number of panel/webinar conversations regarding Antifragility (Practice Beyond the Rhetoric!) . . .

http://bit.ly/AFPW-2015

To continue expanding the community as well as sharing/learning from one another, we have *just* published an Amazon Kindle eBook entitled “Exploring the Practice of Antifragility” (A Kaleidoscope of Perspectives) . . .

. . . and . . .

http://bit.ly/ExPrAF

. .. that *references* the above events as well as briefly elaborate invites people’s perspectives on Antifragility using the three questions that guided the panel/webinar conversations.

Additionally, please note that the eBook does *not* directly incorporate any of the content from the panel/webinar events. Furthermore, all proceeds from the work will be going to a *charity*.

Given that the book is an Amazon Kindle eBook, we will be routinely updating the eBook.

We invite anyone to contribute . . . which involves a 1/2 to 3/4 page answer to each question (same as the panel/webinar questions):

* How have you interpreted Taleb’s concept of Antifragility?

* How have you translated your interpretation into practice?

* What are the results and impacts of your efforts?

People are of-course be acknowledged as a *contributor* on the eBook cover etc.

Additionally, as @nntaleb also tweeted about the eBook . . . the eBook achieved Amazon #1 Best Seller in One-Hour Business & Money Short Reads!

. . . book website https://exploringthepracticeofantifragility.wordpress.com/amazon-1-best-seller/

. . . blog https://salhir.wordpress.com/2015/11/25/exploring-the-practice-of-antifragility/

Would appreciate you informing people of this project / invitation. . . (and possibly contributing your views)

https://exploringthepracticeofantifragility.wordpress.com/contributing-your-perspective/

Looking forward to your thoughts/reply . . . I am available to address any questions via phone or skype.

Regards,

Si

 

Celibacy, Data, Inequality and Wealth, Kilkenomics

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CELIBACY and SKIN IN THE GAME (Facebook)
Imagine working for a corporation that produces secret harm to the collective, in hiding cancer-causing risk which kills the thousands but is not (yet) fully visible. You can alert the public, but would automatically lose your job and there is a gamble that the company’s evil scientists would disprove you, causing additional humiliation. You know the history of whisteblowers and realize that, even if you end up vindicated, it may take time for the truth to emerge over the noise created by corporate shills. You have nine children, a sick parent, and as a result of the stand, the children’s future is compromised. College hopes are gone. You feel severely conflicted between the harm to the collective and guilt from harm to your progeny. Thousands are dying from the hidden poisoining by the corporation. You would like to be a hero but it comes at a huge cost.

Society likes saints and moral heroes to be celibate so they do not have family pressures and be forced into dilemmas of needing to compromise their sense of ethics to feed their children. Some martyrs like Socrates had young children (although he was in his seventies), and overcame the dilemma at their expense. Many can’t.

The fact that people with families are vulnerable has been remarkably exploited in history. The Samurai had to leave their families in Edo as hostages, thus guaranteeing to the authorities that they would not take positions against the rulers. The Romans and Huns partook of the practice of trading permanent “visitors”, the children of rulers on both sides who grew up at the courts of the foreign nation in a form of gilded captivity. The Ottomans relied on janissaries who were extracted as babies from Christian families and, having no family (or no contact with their family), were entirely devoted to the Sultan.

Etc.

https://twitter.com/nntaleb/status/664871621354721284

https://twitter.com/nntaleb/status/664484066977292293

https://twitter.com/nntaleb/status/664159993617391618

INEQUALITY AND WEALTH (Facebook)
In the more rural past, wealthy people were not as exposed to other persons of their class. They didn’t have the pressure to keep up with other wealthy persons and compete with them. The wealthy stayed within their region, surrounded with people who depended on them, say a Lord on his property. Except for the occasional season in the cities, their social life was quite vertical.
It is in mercantile urban environments that socializing within social class took place. And, over time, with industrialization the rich started moving to cities or suburbs surrounded with other people of similar –but not very similar –condition. Hence they needed to keep up with each other, racing on a treadmill.

https://twitter.com/nntaleb/status/664086988811862016

https://twitter.com/nntaleb/status/663659172756606976

https://twitter.com/nntaleb/status/663643237459062784

Thanks @Kilkenomics. Only economics conference without uptight and constipated technocrats. https://t.co/TBxSz2izs5
— NassimNicholasTaleb (@nntaleb) November 10, 2015

Fascinating talk on #BlackSwan #antifragile @nntaleb – great to meet you @kilkenomics – great insights @davidmcw pic.twitter.com/LIbzXnGjm6— Shauna O’Boyle (@Shaunaob) November 10, 2015

Jotted down at Kilkenomics why neuroscience, evolutionary theory, behavioral econ, genetics, etc. are full of BS https://t.co/DZhn9cEkh4— NassimNicholasTaleb (@nntaleb) November 9, 2015

Enthralled by @peterfrankopan ‘s book The Silk Roads and by @davidmcw ‘s @kilkenomics pic.twitter.com/ecvGEXGdXd
— NassimNicholasTaleb (@nntaleb) November 9, 2015

Fooled by Researchers https://t.co/lxOaNOWnwP
— NassimNicholasTaleb (@nntaleb) November 12, 2015

Becoming an academic if you like the pursuit of knowledge is like becoming an airport mechanic if you like flying. #uninterestingdetails
— NassimNicholasTaleb (@nntaleb) November 11, 2015

Here is the sheet of simulations where I show to be skeptical of big data, DNA promises, etc. IN PROGRESS. https://t.co/nEfq1EgSpg
— NassimNicholasTaleb (@nntaleb) November 10, 2015

Amazon.com: N N Taleb “Nassim Nicholas Taleb”‘s review of Collected Fictions

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From NNT’s Amazon book review of Borges’s “Collected Fictions“
5.0 out of 5 starsHow literature and philosophy can be saved by parables, September 16, 2015
This review is from: Collected Fictions (Paperback)
This is something very hard to find, almost by definition: a literary writer who thinks in abstract terms (the only other such author I’ve read is Stanislaw Lem). These are philosophical thought experiments in their purest form, yet somehow magically delivered in a playful literary athmosphere. Borges is a mathematical philosopher, first and last. Ignore the “Latin American” categorization and the nonsense about his background and personal life: one should resist embedding him in a socio-cultural framework; he is as universal as they come. It is good to read a short story once in a while to see how literature and philosophy can be saved by the parable.

Source: Amazon.com: N N Taleb “Nassim Nicholas Taleb”‘s review of Collected Fictions
HatTip to Dave Lull

Daniel Kahneman: ‘What would I eliminate if I had a magic wand? Overconfidence’ | The Guardian

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Photograph: Richard Saker

“I’m far on the left of the spectrum in Israeli politics and always have been,” he says. “I hated the notion of occupation since the very beginning. My first memories from after the 67 war are travelling with my children in the occupied territories. There were awnings over groceries stores with Hebrew lettering advertising Osem noodles. I couldn’t bear it. I thought that was dreadful because I remembered German lettering in France. I have very strong feelings about Israel as an occupier.”Despite this, Kahneman has found it impossible to envisage a settlement that will satisfy both sides. “I don’t believe in the power of rational argument in this context,” he says, with an air of resignation. He mentions one occasion when he was visited at his university by a Palestinian academic after 67. They were getting on famously. But then “we tried to negotiate peace, and we failed, essentially on the right of return, which although obviously a legitimate demand among the Palestinians, means the destruction of Israel. So people who don’t want Israel destroyed cannot accept the right of return, even though they might understand that it has legitimacy behind it.”

Source: Daniel Kahneman: ‘What would I eliminate if I had a magic wand? Overconfidence’ | Books | The Guardian
HatTip to Dave Lull