The first, and hardest, step to wisdom: avert the standard assumption that people know what they want.
(via negativa).
via The first, and… | Facebook.
Saturday, January 28, 2012
About a recent NNT talk. I hope there’s audio. HatTip to Dave Lull.
“The Triad” is Taleb’s system to categorize entities as fragile, robust, or anti-fragile. Some basic examples follow: debt would be considered fragile; equity, robust; and venture capital equity, anti-fragile. A nation-state would be considered fragile, while a city-state would be considered anti-fragile. The issue, however, is that it’s a lot easier to identify something as fragile than it is to classify it as anti-fragile. Both fragile and anti-fragile entities experience non-linearities and non-linear responses; however, there are some important distinctions between them, which Taleb highlights in his book.
Taleb discusses fragility and anti-fragility, plus their implications, in the draft of his technical paper “A Map and Simple Heuristic to Detect Fragility, Anti-fragility, and Model Error,” which can be found on his website. For those in the audience who had very little technical understanding of fragility, Taleb provided a simpler, more intuitive explanation of his central ideas. The difference between fragility and anti-fragility and their connection to his previous work, “The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable” can be understood using a very good example from the paper.
via Nassim Taleb presents the concept of anti-fragility – The Stute – Stevens Institute of Technology.
You can figure out people by their use of the word “important”.
via You can figure out… | Facebook.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
(Please avoid posting links (except if extremely necessary). Please say what you have to say directly. Assume you are having a conversation with others. Thanks).
via (Please avoid… | Facebook.
Thursday, January 26, 2012
People, when they get richer, are punished by having to live their lives as if they were managing a corporation.
via People, when they… | Facebook.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
CORRECTION
The notion of “achievement” *devalues* life into a tournament.
(Modernity)
via CORRECTION The… | Facebook.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
The notion of “achievement” transforms life into a tournament.Modernity
via The notion of… | Facebook.
NOTICE: I have nothing against politics, I just feel queasy seing political discussions invading this page and, even more nauseating, getting mail from journalists, or, worse, political journalists. So PLEASE no discussions about the presidential or other campaigns here. Thanks.
via NOTICE: I have… | Facebook.
Ron Paul’s 2012 campaign just got an endorsement from Nassim Taleb. Sort of.
When asked his opinion on Ron Paul, Taleb, on his Facebook page, wrote “the only candidate I trust is Ron Paul.” Taleb, however, seems to be more interested in philosophy than politics.
“I do not wish to be dragged into politics beyond my statement of trusting one, and only one candidate in this primary. Conversation ended,” he later added.
via Ron Paul 2012 Gets ‘Endorsement’ from Nassim Taleb – International Business Times. HatTip to Dave Lull.
Friends, thanks (will use both barbell and bimodal). How about the nonbarbell class: Quasi-mercenary class, proto-prostitute class, protomercenary class. Is mercenary or prostitute a fitting designation?
x…x Class: An economic condition of making more than minimum wage and wishing for more wealth. Workers, monks, hippies, some artists, and English aristocrats escape it. The middle class tends to fall into it; so do Russian billionaires, lobbyists, most bankers, and bureaucrats. Members are bribable provided given an adequate narrative, mostly with use of casuistry.
via Friends, thanks… | Facebook.