Friends, after yesterday’s Dobelli…

Friends, after yesterday’s Dobelli diversion, let us move to skin in the game. I am posting the talk and paper but let’s try to do heuristics across domains, in areas where I could work (instead of enumerating examples of where it is employed).

The paper is here:
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2298292
Taleb on Skin in the Game | EconTalk | Library of Economics and Liberty
Nassim Taleb of NYU-Poly talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about his recent paper with Constantine Sandis on the morality and effectiveness of…

via Friends, after yesterday’s Dobelli… – Nassim Nicholas Taleb | Facebook.

OK, OK, I am putting the facts in the…

OK, OK, I am putting the facts in the public domain. You, friends, are now the judges.

Rolf Dobelli’s Case

http://www.fooledbyrandomness.com/dobelli.htm

Please note that I am putting these facts in the public domain, not making any legal or even ethical claim (yet). Just facts.

via OK, OK, I am putting the facts in the… – Nassim Nicholas Taleb | Facebook.

Rolf Dobelli’s Case

Rolf Dobelli’s Case

Please note that I am putting these facts in the public domain, not making any legal or even ethical claim (yet). Just facts.

(Four months after becoming aware of the problem, and exactly one month after informing Dobelli, I resolved to put this here.)

Taken from Taleb’s Incerto (Fooled by Randomness, The Black Swan, The Bed of Procrustes, & Antifragile) and other material without attribution; partial list.[i] [ii] These correspond to Rolf Dobelli’s various articles as well as his latest book.

***

Rolf Dobelli translated and summarized the section on via negativa from the unpublished manuscript of Antifragile (with which he was entrusted) in a German newspaper Zeit, with no sourcing and attribution. And published it before Antifragile.

One could stop here and draw a conclusion… but there is more: in the US version:

Taleb

Michelangelo was asked by the pope about the secret of his genius, particularly how he carved the statue of David, largely considered the masterpiece of all masterpieces. His answer was: “It’s simple. I just remove everything that is not David.” (Antifragile)

Dobelli

The pope asked Michelangelo: “Tell me the secret of your genius. How have you created the statue of David, the masterpiece of all masterpieces?” Michelangelo’s answer: “It’s simple. I removed everything that is not David.”

via Rolf Dobelli’s Case.

Taleb on Skin in the Game | EconTalk

SEPTEMBER 9, 2013
Taleb on Skin in the Game
Nassim Taleb Hosted by Russ Roberts
Nassim Taleb of NYU-Poly talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about his recent paper with Constantine Sandis on the morality and effectiveness of “skin in the game.” When decision makers have skin in the game–when they share in the costs and benefits of their decisions that might affect others–they are more likely to make prudent decisions than in cases where decision-makers can impose costs on others. Taleb sees skin in the game as not just a useful policy concept but a moral imperative. The conversation closes with some observations on the power of expected value for evaluating predictions along with Taleb’s thoughts on economists who rarely have skin in the game when they make forecasts or take policy positions.
Download Size:28.8 MB Right-click or Option-click, and select “Save Link/Target As MP3.

via EconTalk | Library of Economics and Liberty.

Nassim Taleb on the Errors of Richard Dawkins and of Intervening in Syria.

A few weeks back, see, Richard Dawkins caused a bit of controversy when he claimed that Trinity College has produced more Nobel Laureates than the entire Muslim world has been able to muster. As it turns out, Trinity College has also produced more Nobel winners than all of femininity combined, or of all of China as well. The problem isn’t the numbers, but the inference that Dawkins makes from it, which was something along the lines of when it comes to intelligence, the entire Muslim world is backward. Taleb addresses this in the video below as being flawed in terms of the probabilities of there being more smart folks living in the West than there are in the rest of the world.

Basically, he argues that you can’t make inferences from things that take place in the tails of a Gaussian distribution curve, especially in that place we live that Taleb calls Extremistan, where the winners take a disproportionate amount of the gains in a society. Be advised, math alert!

via Nassim Taleb on the Errors of Richard Dawkins and of Intervening in Syria..