Uniek interview met Nassim Taleb – Nieuwsuur.nl

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Hoe overleven we in een onzekere wereld? Dat is het centrale thema in het werk van Nassim Taleb, een van de meest vooraanstaande denkers van deze tijd. Interviews geeft de Amerikaan zelden, maar voor Nieuwsuur maakte hij een uitzondering. Bekijk het exclusieve interview op onze site.

Dissident
Taleb geldt als dissident van de financiële wereld en schreef de wereldwijde bestseller The Black Swan waarin hij de financiële crash van 2008 voorspelde. De van oorsprong Libanese derivatenhandelaar ontpopte zich tot de grootste criticaster van het financiële systeem.

Video interview is in the right sidebar.
via Uniek interview met Nassim Taleb – Nieuwsuur.nl.

Anything deemed bad for you is, well…

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Anything deemed bad for you is, well, good when infrequent and in small quantities.

From the idea of the “S-family” dose response with a convex section it flows *necessarily* that anything deemed harmful that you are exposed to 1) in small enough quantities, 2) in a non-recurring, not chronic exposure, and, 3) in an acute, short lived way (“one off”), *no matter how toxic* it is deemed to be in long term consumption, will eventually either leave you better off or at least no worse off than before. This means that sugar, smoking, pollution, medication, the New York Times, etc. have to leave you not worse off under the condition that your exposure is episodic, not chronic. (Beware the “small”: some things like heroin or an MBA class can leave you permanently altered after a single exposure at doses that do appear small but are not).

The proof is in Part II of the technical book (I am cleaning it up thanks to Carl Fakhry’s indefatigable vigilance). [CORRECTED TYPO]

via Anything deemed bad for you is, well,… – Nassim Nicholas Taleb | Facebook.

GROTHENDIECK & CONNECTING THE DOTS…

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GROTHENDIECK & CONNECTING THE DOTS- I was recently surprised to find the name of a fellow I know in Grothedieck’s book as a sort of co-author/assistant. By serendipity I ran into him last night in the lobby of my hotel, which lead to a very very long conversation about the great man. It turned out that the fellow was one of Grothendieck’s last students, and drove him around the Paris area as G did not have a drivers license.
Few know that Grothendieck who struggled in school as his idea of math did not match the curriculum not only hated equations but struggled to understand them. His idea of abstraction is maximal, and his idea of mathematics is to connect the dots, exactly the opposite of the school teacher. Another person had told me that he went into a state of disgust when he saw textbooks.
Another attribute: G has very gentle personality with students but proved extremely cruel with anyone who was arrogant towards him.

 Alexander Grothendieck – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia en.wikipedia.org Alexander Grothendieck German:[ˈgroːtn̩diːk]; French: [gʁɔtɛndik]; born 28 March 1928 is a stateless mathematician born in Germany and raised in France, who is the central figure behind the creation of the modern theory of

via GROTHENDIECK & CONNECTING THE DOTS- I… – Nassim Nicholas Taleb | Facebook.