2009-2010 This was NNT’s initial Twitter adventure. Since returning to Twitter he frequently purges his Twitter timeline. I do not have a record of the more recent Tweets.
| 365 | Half of suckerhood is not realizing that what you don’t like might be loved by someone else (hence by you later); & the reverse. | Fri Jul 02 16:12:09 +0000 2010 |
| 364 | My idea is to be aggressive risk-taker in the 3 quadrants & extremely prudent in the 4th; establishment does reverse http://TwitPWR.com/LoJ/ | Fri Jul 02 11:54:10 +0000 2010 |
| 363 | We are satisfied with natural (or old) objects but insatiable with technologies amplifying small improvements in versions-mental treadmill | Fri Jul 02 10:22:56 +0000 2010 |
| 362 | For them this is a financial crisis; to me it is an intellectual crisis a crisis of civilization. | Thu Jul 01 20:22:29 +0000 2010 |
| 361 | The weak cannot be good. | Thu Jul 01 18:21:36 +0000 2010 |
| 360 | Most feed their obsessions by getting rid of them. | Thu Jul 01 17:49:47 +0000 2010 |
| 359 | 7 PM Politics & Prose (DC); mostly about Plato elephants my visit to Berlin fragility of nation-states Lebanese wine StendhalHuet | Wed Jun 30 13:20:54 +0000 2010 |
| 358 | Technology is at its best when it is invisible. | Wed Jun 30 12:28:15 +0000 2010 |
| 357 | Passionate hate (by nations & individuals) ends by rotation to another subject of hate; mediocrity cannot handle more than one enemy. | Wed Jun 30 12:25:58 +0000 2010 |
| 356 | Saying nonfiction to bundle all these forms of writing (older than the novel) is like saying nonprostitute to describe a class of humans. | Wed Jun 30 11:39:39 +0000 2010 |
| 355 | What we call fiction is when you look deep much less fictional than nonfiction; but it is usually less imaginative. | Wed Jun 30 11:37:00 +0000 2010 |
| 354 | Just realized reading Stendhal that Catholic countries had more serial monogamy than today but w/o divorce -they faced chronic widowhood . | Wed Jun 30 10:27:14 +0000 2010 |
| 353 | No monkey is as good-looking that the ugliest of humans no businessman worthier than the worst of the poets. | Tue Jun 29 14:14:12 +0000 2010 |
| 352 | If your anger decreases with time you did injustice; if it increases you suffered injustice. | Mon Jun 28 19:41:16 +0000 2010 |
| 351 | RT @ahaspel: @nntaleb But German has a related term — Radler (cyclist) after the posture: bent back above kicking feet below. | Mon Jun 28 18:50:54 +0000 2010 |
| 350 | English does not distinguish between arrogant-up irreverence towards the temporarily powerful and arrogant-down directed at the small guy. | Mon Jun 28 16:22:04 +0000 2010 |
| 349 | Note 131 http://TwitPWR.com/Lb9/ | Mon Jun 28 11:26:23 +0000 2010 |
| 348 | The person you are the most afraid to contradict is yourself. | Mon Jun 28 10:22:20 +0000 2010 |
| 347 | If you want to annoy a poet explain his poetry. | Mon Jun 28 07:21:09 +0000 2010 |
| 346 | A large part of the Great Sucker Problem (GSP) is the central confusion between unobserved and non-existent the unproven & the erroneous. | Sun Jun 27 14:48:32 +0000 2010 |
| 345 | In the past most were ignorant except for 1 in 1000 refined enough to talk to. Today thx to progress literacy& media only 1 in 100000. | Sun Jun 27 12:11:00 +0000 2010 |
| 344 | There is a distinction between expressive hypochondria and literature just as there is one between self-help and philosophy. | Sat Jun 26 21:02:00 +0000 2010 |
| 343 | Failure of 2nd order thinking (autism): he tells you a secret & expect you to keep it when he just gave you evidence that he can’t keep it. | Fri Jun 25 21:26:38 +0000 2010 |
| 342 | Don’t talk abt ” progress” in terms of longevity safety or comfort before looking at zoo animals compared to those in the wildrnss. | Fri Jun 25 12:08:11 +0000 2010 |
| 341 | Most people fear being alone without audiovisual stimulation because they are too repetitive when they think & imagine things on their own. | Fri Jun 25 11:07:27 +0000 2010 |
| 340 | It takes extraordinary wisdom & self control to accept that many things have a logic we do not understand that is smarter than our own. | Fri Jun 25 11:03:40 +0000 2010 |
| 339 | We now face the choice betw those who write clearly about a subject they don’t know& those who write poorly about a subject they don’t know | Thu Jun 24 18:22:08 +0000 2010 |
| 338 | 2010 600000 books in English with few memorable quotes; c. 0 AD a handful of books with loads of quotes. Information rich dark ages. | Thu Jun 24 15:58:34 +0000 2010 |
| 337 | They spend their lives writing and writing and manage to avoid producing a single quotable sentence. | Thu Jun 24 14:34:13 +0000 2010 |
| 336 | Those who when discussing someone’s writings hint at the connection with “my friend X” are most probably not his friends. | Thu Jun 24 14:26:32 +0000 2010 |
| 335 | Just as dyed hair makes older men less attractive what you do to hide your weaknesses makes them more repugnant. | Thu Jun 24 13:55:07 +0000 2010 |
| 334 | If someone gives you more than one reason why he wants the job don’t hire him. | Thu Jun 24 10:53:42 +0000 2010 |
| 333 | When someone says “I am not that stupid” it often means that he is more stupid than he thinks. | Wed Jun 23 21:16:22 +0000 2010 |
| 332 | To understand the liberating effect of asceticism consider that losing all your fortune is much less painful than losing half of it. | Wed Jun 23 17:15:26 +0000 2010 |
| 331 | I knew that businessmen had others write books for them; turns out they also have others read (& summarize) books for them. | Wed Jun 23 09:26:32 +0000 2010 |
| 330 | We talk about romantic love not its inescapable and far more interesting mutation romantic hate. | Tue Jun 22 20:23:19 +0000 2010 |
| 329 | A verbal threat is the most authentic certificate of impotence. | Tue Jun 22 18:49:52 +0000 2010 |
| 328 | Most of the so-called writers keep writing & writing with the hope to some day find something to say. | Tue Jun 22 07:54:19 +0000 2010 |
| 327 | For so many instead of looking for “cause of death” when they expire we should be looking for “cause of life” when they are still around. | Mon Jun 21 20:41:25 +0000 2010 |
| 326 | Don’t complain too loud about wrongs done you you may give ideas to your less imaginative enemies. | Mon Jun 21 12:08:37 +0000 2010 |
| 325 | 2- Beauty is enhanced by unashamed irregularities; greatness by a facade of blunder. | Sun Jun 20 23:39:04 +0000 2010 |
| 324 | It’s much harder to write a review for a book you’ve read than for a book you haven’t read. | Sun Jun 20 13:17:40 +0000 2010 |
| 323 | The best revenge on a liar is to convince him that you believe what he said. | Sun Jun 20 13:04:04 +0000 2010 |
| 322 | 1- We love imperfection the right kind of imperfection; we pay up for original art & typo-laden 1st editions. | Sat Jun 19 16:47:33 +0000 2010 |
| 321 | The magnificent believes half what he hears and twice what he says. | Sat Jun 19 12:56:36 +0000 2010 |
| 320 | Quite revealing of human preferences that more suicides come from shame or loss of financial & social status than acute health problems. | Fri Jun 18 20:04:21 +0000 2010 |
| 319 | The deeper the river the less noise it makes (Amioun proverb). | Fri Jun 18 17:48:51 +0000 2010 |
| 318 | At lunch (French restrnt) they ate the salmon & removed the skin;at dinner (sushi) they ate the skin & removed the salmon. Domain dependence | Fri Jun 18 11:55:27 +0000 2010 |
| 317 | Engineers can compute but not define mathematicians can define but not compute economists can neither compute nor define. | Fri Jun 18 11:50:04 +0000 2010 |
| 316 | My central idea: The rationalist wants an imbecile-free world the empiricist an imbecile-proof one. (Or better a rationalist-proof one). | Fri Jun 18 11:37:35 +0000 2010 |
| 315 | @City_Poems Reverse arrow: in Q&A People asked if I take my ideas into practice no-one ever asked if I got my ideas from practice #GAIM10 | Wed Jun 16 15:33:21 +0000 2010 |
| 314 | Society needs prudent leaders and risk-taking error-prone followers; we got the opposite. | Tue Jun 15 15:54:11 +0000 2010 |
| 313 | Many of those said to be unbribable are just too expensive. | Tue Jun 15 13:12:08 +0000 2010 |
| 312 | Many are so unoriginal they need to study history to find mistakes to repeat. | Mon Jun 14 15:00:28 +0000 2010 |
| 311 | Being unimaginative is only a problem for those who get bored easily. | Mon Jun 14 14:42:22 +0000 2010 |
| 310 | I’ve always wondered if one could be fit and healthy without boring others with talk ofdiet health & fitness. | Mon Jun 14 12:13:11 +0000 2010 |
| 309 | A mathematician starts with a problem and creates a solution; a consultant starts with a “solution” and create s a problem. | Sat Jun 12 18:38:47 +0000 2010 |
| 308 | Technology can degrade every single aspect of a sucker’s life while convincing him that it is becoming more “efficient”. | Sat Jun 12 18:34:58 +0000 2010 |
| 307 | The opposite of manliness isn’t effeminacy; it’s technology. | Sat Jun 12 18:18:57 +0000 2010 |
| 306 | If you can identify a single reason why you and someone are friends you are not friends. | Sat Jun 12 14:01:23 +0000 2010 |
| 305 | An educated sucker is the best sucker. (Fat Tony) | Sat Jun 12 11:05:54 +0000 2010 |
| 304 | For most success is the harmful passage from the camp of the hating to the camp of the hated. | Wed Jun 09 20:25:06 +0000 2010 |
| 303 | Fate is at its cruelest when a finance person ends up poor. | Tue Jun 08 17:19:29 +0000 2010 |
| 302 | There are designations like “economist” “prostitute” or “consultant” for which additional characterization does n’t add information. | Mon Jun 07 11:37:55 +0000 2010 |
| 301 | For a writerthe distance between enthusiastic fan & rabid detractor is as short as 2 or 3 unanswered letters; jst the perception of a snub. | Sun Jun 06 22:19:26 +0000 2010 |
| 300 | For most work & what comes with it have the eroding effect of chronic injury. [rev’d] | Sun Jun 06 12:31:15 +0000 2010 |
| 299 | Half the people lie with their lips; the other half with their tears. [rev’d] | Sun Jun 06 12:28:49 +0000 2010 |
| 298 | It is harder to say no when you really mean it than when you don’t. | Sat Jun 05 22:14:19 +0000 2010 |
| 297 | For the classics philosophical insight was the product of a life of leisure; for me a life of leisure is the product of philopsphcal insight | Sat Jun 05 21:59:38 +0000 2010 |
| 296 | The tragedy is that much of what you think is random is in your control and what’s worse the opposite. | Sat Jun 05 21:53:20 +0000 2010 |
| 295 | For most work & what come with it have the eroding effect of chronic injury. | Sat Jun 05 19:32:27 +0000 2010 |
| 294 | Dixeris maledicta cuncta cum hominem ingratum dixeris. [Once you’ve called someone ingrate no need to say more – Publilius the Syrian]. | Sat Jun 05 18:20:33 +0000 2010 |
| 293 | Half the people lie with their tongues; the other half lie with their tears. | Sat Jun 05 18:11:03 +0000 2010 |
| 292 | Radio Open Source Nassim Nicholas Taleb: The Crisis is Just Begun: www1.tour.ne.jp/… | Fri Jun 04 21:27:55 +0000 2010 |
| 291 | …and you can be certain that a person has neither means nor will to help you when he says ‘I am here to help”. | Thu Jun 03 13:09:09 +0000 2010 |
| 290 | You can be certain that a person has the means but not the will to help you when he says “there is nothing else I can do”. | Thu Jun 03 11:15:34 +0000 2010 |
| 289 | The English have Mediterranean weather at random times; but they go to Spain because their free hours are deterministic & rigid. [Hay Fest] | Wed Jun 02 11:24:58 +0000 2010 |
| 288 | Preoccupation with efficacy is the main obstacle to a poetic noble elegant or heroic life. | Tue Jun 01 16:52:00 +0000 2010 |
| 287 | When conflicted between two mutually exclusive choices take neither. If you can. | Tue Jun 01 13:04:53 +0000 2010 |
| 286 | Whatever you see around that is not perishable can be expected to be in the middle of its lifespan BACKUP http://TwitPWR.com/JZ0/ | Tue Jun 01 10:44:48 +0000 2010 |
| 285 | The main disadvantage of being a writer is that there is nothing you can say or do that can get you in trouble. [Hay Festival Wales] | Mon May 31 19:09:04 +0000 2010 |
| 284 | Pharmaceutical companies are better at inventing diseases to match existing drugs than inventing drugs to match existing diseases. | Sat May 29 12:53:02 +0000 2010 |
| 283 | The weak shows off his strength hides his defects; the magnificent exhibits his defects like ornaments. [Robustness] | Fri May 28 16:05:19 +0000 2010 |
| 282 | Corollary: whatever you see around that is not perishable can be expected to be in the middle of its lifespan: books companies species | Fri May 28 08:02:52 +0000 2010 |
| 281 | The best predictor of whether a technology will be used in 10 years is if it has been in use for 10 years. (Beware: is a noisy predictor) | Fri May 28 07:52:21 +0000 2010 |
| 280 | In Proust’s Morel demonizes Nissim Bernard a Jew who lent him money; & becomes anti-Semitic just to escape the feeling of gratitude | Thu May 27 18:09:56 +0000 2010 |
| 279 | In Proust’s Morel demonizes Nissim Bernard a Jew who lent him money; & becomes anti-Semitic just to escape the feeling of gratitude. | Thu May 27 17:58:27 +0000 2010 |
| 278 | Fortune punishes the greedy by making him poor & the very greedy by making him rich. | Thu May 27 12:49:07 +0000 2010 |
| 277 | In nature whatever is functional is elegant; in modern life the opposite. | Wed May 26 16:39:30 +0000 2010 |
| 276 | A friendship that ends was never one; there was at least one sucker in it. | Wed May 26 15:47:38 +0000 2010 |
| 275 | In poor countries regulators receive explicit bribes; in DC they get sophisticated implicit unspoken promises to work for Corporations. | Tue May 25 19:38:19 +0000 2010 |
| 274 | When expressing “good luck” to a peer the weak wishes the opposite the strong is mildly indifferent; but only the magnificent means it. | Tue May 25 19:22:13 +0000 2010 |
| 273 | The weak regrets his words more than his silence; the strong regrets his silence more than his words; the magnificent regrets nothing. | Tue May 25 17:59:14 +0000 2010 |
| 272 | When he/she shouts that what you did was impardonable he/she has already started to pardon you. | Tue May 25 14:49:55 +0000 2010 |
| 271 | (For Orthodox (Palamas) & Algazel (3rd cat) attempts to define God using Greek philos universals (2nd cat) was a Western-Averroan mistake). | Tue May 25 13:34:47 +0000 2010 |
| 270 | Mathematically there are things we can define & compute things we can define but not compute & things we can neither define nor compute. | Tue May 25 12:56:36 +0000 2010 |
| 269 | Saying “the mathematics of uncertainty” is like saying “the chastity of sex” -what is mathematized is no longe r uncertain & vice versa. | Tue May 25 12:51:32 +0000 2010 |
| 268 | A scientist talking about uncertainty incompleteness unknowledge & ignorance is like a psychopath talking about compassion. | Tue May 25 11:41:40 +0000 2010 |
| 267 | @ahaspel You shd not be put in a position to ax that question… | Tue May 25 01:43:15 +0000 2010 |
| 266 | Re Venter: a nuclear accident remains relatively local and nonscalable a biological one w/ “replicator” will be global.I don’t want this! | Mon May 24 17:22:05 +0000 2010 |
| 265 | 2- Mother Nature proved to be vastly smarter than biologists just as the economy proved to be vastly smarter than economists. | Mon May 24 13:43:48 +0000 2010 |
| 264 | 1-Re Venter; In brief natural evolution is robust & takes place across ecosystem; manmade evolution is fragile & disrupts unpredictably. | Mon May 24 13:36:10 +0000 2010 |
| 263 | Will talk about literatureVenter’s playing G.d & will be heckled by detractors tonite 7 PM B&N Union Sq in NY http://TwitPWR.com/Jtl/ | Mon May 24 11:29:46 +0000 2010 |
| 262 | Venter’s attempt: an insult to G..d; but also an insult to evolution; http://www.edge.org/#taleb | Mon May 24 11:01:56 +0000 2010 |
| 261 | 2- As a good filter of noise ask yourself before you read anything whether it will be still be in print in one ten & fifty years… | Sun May 23 20:19:45 +0000 2010 |
| 260 | 1-Some write books without anything quotable (profs journos etc.); others inexhaustible (Plato Wittgnst Cicero Mutanabbi Nietzsche..) | Sun May 23 19:28:06 +0000 2010 |
| 259 | Wisdom in the young is as unattractive as frivolity in the elderly. | Sun May 23 17:50:56 +0000 2010 |
| 258 | Lesser men rarely compliment when they really mean it. | Sun May 23 17:12:58 +0000 2010 |
| 257 | It is a good practice to always apologize except when you have done something wrong | Sun May 23 15:36:50 +0000 2010 |
| 256 | The philosopher Demonax stopped a Spartan from beating his servant. “You are making him your equal” he said. [in Lucian of Samosata] | Sun May 23 15:22:48 +0000 2010 |
| 255 | By praising someone for his lack of defects you are also implying his lack of virtues. | Sun May 23 12:56:34 +0000 2010 |
| 254 | You can tell how uninteresting a person is by asking him whom he finds interesting. | Sat May 22 22:15:01 +0000 2010 |
| 253 | 2- In real life you don’t know who really won or who really lost (except too late); but you can tell who is heroic and who is not. | Sat May 22 13:27:49 +0000 2010 |
| 252 | Games were created to give nonheroes the illusion of winning. (Gen ludic fallacy) | Sat May 22 12:58:31 +0000 2010 |
| 251 | With terminal disease nature lets you die with quick suffering; medicine lets you suffer with prolonged dying. (revised) | Sat May 22 09:01:14 +0000 2010 |
| 250 | With terminal disease nature lets you die without suffering; medicine lets you suffer without dying. | Fri May 21 22:51:26 +0000 2010 |
| 249 | The only definition of an alpha male: if you try to be an alpha male you will never be one. | Fri May 21 18:01:34 +0000 2010 |
| 248 | I will be heckled and bled to death by journalists & various detractors Monday 7 PM at the B&N Union Store in NY http://TwitPWR.com/Jtl/ | Fri May 21 13:16:22 +0000 2010 |
| 247 | Some half-men (usually finance people) are so unfit for success that when they make it they look like dwarves dressed in giants’ clothes. | Fri May 21 11:58:21 +0000 2010 |
| 246 | @TheStalwart @FelixSalmon Can you heckle me at the B&N Union Sq Monday Lecture? I never get tough questions. | Thu May 20 21:57:40 +0000 2010 |
| 245 | The curious mind embraces science; the gifted & sensitive the arts; the practical business; the leftover becomes an economist. | Thu May 20 21:13:18 +0000 2010 |
| 244 | @TheStalwart You forget the origin of wine <-Uinum <- phoenician Yayn from Bekaa Valley. 6000 years uninterrupted | Thu May 20 17:26:46 +0000 2010 |
| 243 | Ending media torture prematurely as book zoomed to the NYT bestseller lst. May still lecture but no swans just aphorisms & Lebanese wine. | Thu May 20 17:14:38 +0000 2010 |
| 242 | It takes a lot of intellect & confidence to accept that what makes sense doesn’t really make sense. | Thu May 20 16:09:29 +0000 2010 |
| 241 | People tend to fake indifference or extreme love; never hate. | Wed May 19 22:42:36 2010 |
| 240 | @tom_peters That’s substractive epistemology: knowledge of what does not work is more ROBUST to representational error/ randomness. | Wed May 19 19:06:46 2010 |
| 239 | People focus on role models; it is more effective to find anti-models people you don’t want to be like when you grow up. | Wed May 19 18:55:31 2010 |
| 238 | If my detractors knew me better they would hate me even more. | Wed May 19 17:48:13 2010 |
| 237 | Thinkers & artists care the most about the few who love them; politicians & vulgar professionals care the most about the few who hate them. | Wed May 19 13:25:55 2010 |
| 236 | There is nothing I’ve learned & still remember that I did not learn by myself; & nothing they tried to teach me that ended up sticking. | Wed May 19 10:38:12 2010 |
| 235 | Skills that transfer: street fights off-path hiking seduction broad erudition. Skills that don’t: school gamessports- what’s organized | Tue May 18 22:14:37 2010 |
| 234 | 2- You exist if & only if your conversation (or writings) cannot be reconstructed w/clips from other conversations having taken place. | Tue May 18 19:25:41 2010 |
| 233 | 1- A businessman’s conversation can be entirely reconstructed w/clips from other conversations taking place at the same time on the planet. | Tue May 18 19:20:50 2010 |
| 232 | Evidence that the ancient Levantines valued the virtue of “megalopsychia” or شهم before Christian era http://TwitPWR.com/Jih/ | Tue May 18 15:23:14 2010 |
| 231 | Your reputation is harmed the most by what you say to defend it. | Tue May 18 12:11:35 2010 |
| 230 | Mandelbrot’s genius is in achieving aesthetic simplicity without having recourse to smoothness; producing harmony in highly jagged surfaces | Tue May 18 10:29:58 2010 |
| 229 | (For those who still don’t get the point sports skills don’t transfer outside the narrow domain) | Mon May 17 22:08:37 2010 |
| 228 | (expl: free and wise humans don’t compete on a metric – genralized ludic fallacy). | Mon May 17 13:34:59 2010 |
| 227 | Competitive athletes are inferior to both humans and animals unless faster than a cheetah or stronger than a bull. | Mon May 17 13:13:53 2010 |
| 226 | Wit signals intelligence stripped of nerdiness. | Mon May 17 13:06:45 2010 |
| 225 | Catalogue raisonné (in progress) http://TwitPWR.com/JcO/ | Mon May 17 10:35:05 2010 |
| 224 | In classical renderings of prominent figures males are lean & females are plump; in modern photographs the opposite. | Sun May 16 18:17:33 2010 |
| 223 | The difference between magnificence & arrogance is in what one does when nobody is looking. | Sun May 16 11:35:41 2010 |
| 222 | Greatness starts with the replacement of hatred with polite disdain. | Sun May 16 10:59:12 2010 |
| 221 | When individuals go bust their debt don’t transfer to their children; when states do even the unborn is liable. Deficits are immoral. | Sun May 16 10:46:38 2010 |
| 220 | The classical man’s worst fear was inglorious death; the modern man’s worst fear is just death. [corrected thx] | Sat May 15 19:07:50 2010 |
| 219 | In much of our history only few men but almost all women were able to procreate. Equality is more natural to women than men. | Sat May 15 18:34:44 2010 |
| 218 | You may outlive your strength; never your wisdom. | Sat May 15 18:24:14 2010 |
| 217 | When a woman says “intelligent” about a man she also means handsome; when a man says “dumb” about a woman he also means pretty. | Fri May 14 19:43:16 2010 |
| 216 | BusinessBookReaders with my prose are like deaf persons in a Puccini opera: they may like a thing or two while wondering “what’s the point?” | Fri May 14 13:01:37 2010 |
| 215 | The characteristic feature of the loser is to bemoan mankind’s flaws biases & irrationality –without exploiting them for fun and profit. | Fri May 14 12:16:07 2010 |
| 214 | (cmmtry: This government deficit thing shows how people individually ethical can be turned collectively into unethical monsters. Shame.) | Fri May 14 10:53:37 2010 |
| 213 | Stimulus w/ deficit even if effective is as immoral as borrowing from your grandchildren (without asking them) to repay your gambling debt | Fri May 14 10:47:37 2010 |
| 212 | Promising someone good luck as return for good deeds sounds like a bribe; perhaps the remnant of archaic pre-deontic pre-classical morality | Fri May 14 10:17:55 2010 |
| 211 | Was on Bloomberg TV –impressed: vastly more professional than competitors; better thoughtful staff even the make-up was superior. | Thu May 13 13:58:18 2010 |
| 210 | Deficits are similar to carbs: the more you eat the hungrier you get. | Thu May 13 12:45:11 2010 |
| 209 | …and worsens with the replacement of memories with other memories. | Wed May 12 15:59:45 2010 |
| 208 | Decline starts with the replacement of dreams with memories; & reverses with the replacement of dreams with other dreams. | Wed May 12 14:24:49 2010 |
| 207 | (comment: your brain is most active when you make it completely free -as in the shower). | Wed May 12 13:04:37 2010 |
| 206 | You will be civilized the day you can spend time doing nothing learning nothing & improving nothing without feeling slightest guilt. | Wed May 12 11:34:54 2010 |
| 205 | Real philosophers require only long walks to figure out what mere people need crises accidents serial bailouts & calamities to understand | Tue May 11 10:59:04 2010 |
| 204 | Detecting dullness is best skill: Some pursuits like piracy are dull from inside (most of the time) though glamorous from the outside. | Mon May 10 21:57:27 2010 |
| 203 | Slaves (in Roman and Ottoman days) unlike today’s employees did not need to flatter their boss. | Mon May 10 19:58:58 2010 |
| 202 | Public companies like human cells are programmed for apoptosis suicide through hidden risks. Bailouts make the process more entertaining. | Mon May 10 19:53:35 2010 |
| 201 | You have a real life if & only if you do not compete with anyone in any of your pursuits. | Mon May 10 09:48:23 2010 |
| 200 | The difference between technology & slavery is that slaves are fully aware that they are not free. (Generalized Sucker Problem) | Sun May 09 11:56:59 2010 |
| 199 | It is as difficult to avoid bugging others with advice on how to exercise as it is to stick to an exercise schedule. | Sat May 08 12:05:33 2010 |
| 198 | Substractive epistemology: the sucker thinks Truth is search for knowlege; the nonsucker knows Truth is search for ignorance. | Thu May 06 20:26:44 2010 |
| 197 | For company you tend to prefer those who find you interesting over those you find interesting. | Thu May 06 08:41:28 2010 |
| 196 | Robustness & Fragility: For the robust an error is information; for the fragile an error is an error. | Wed May 05 16:22:07 2010 |
| 195 | The main difference between gov. bailouts and smoking is that in some rare cases the statement “this is my last cigarette” holds true. | Wed May 05 06:06:55 2010 |
| 194 | Love & happiness: Those who talk about love tend to be in love; but those who talk about happiness tend to be not happy. | Mon May 03 19:26:21 2010 |
| 193 | You have a real life when most of what you fear has the titillating prospect of adventure. | Sun May 02 18:28:17 2010 |
| 192 | The only objective definition of aging is when a person starts to discuss aging. | Sat May 01 15:23:00 2010 |
| 191 | @RealJeffMurdock. Just hit “like” button | Thu Apr 29 22:14:45 2010 |
| 190 | Experimenting with 2-way dialogue on http://TwitPWR.com/IgP/ | Thu Apr 29 17:30:19 2010 |
| 189 | You are only secure if you can lose your fortune without the added worse insult of having to become humble. (My great-g-g-grandfather’s rule | Thu Apr 29 13:54:53 2010 |
| 188 | What would you rather be; intellectually humble but perceived as arrogant or intellectually arrogant but perceived as humble? | Wed Apr 28 23:12:28 2010 |
| 187 | [comm: Nothing wrong w/book as peacock tail signaling of superiority & ego trip;it’s the commercial agenda outside the bk that corrupts it] | Wed Apr 28 22:34:25 2010 |
| 186 | [comm: after a long media diet I realize that there is nothing that’s not (clumsily) trying to sell you something. I only trust my library] | Wed Apr 28 22:00:24 2010 |
| 185 | The book is the only medium left that hasn’t been corrupted by the profane: everything else on your eyelids manipulates you with an ad. | Wed Apr 28 21:43:54 2010 |
| 184 | (commentary: efforts at building social political and medical utopias have caused nightmares; many cures & techn came frm martial efforts) | Wed Apr 28 11:52:14 2010 |
| 183 | The worst damage has been caused by competent people trying to do good;the best welfare has been brought by incompetent ones trying to harm. | Wed Apr 28 11:41:01 2010 |
| 182 | Social media are antisocial health foods are empirically unhealthy knowledge workers are ignorant & social sciences aren’t scientific | Tue Apr 27 18:38:11 2010 |
| 181 | …and with businessbooks I skip both the text & the footnotes. | Tue Apr 27 13:52:28 2010 |
| 180 | With regular books I read the text & skip the footnotes; with those written by academics I read the footnotes & skip the text. | Tue Apr 27 09:45:46 2010 |
| 179 | I lost my moleskine-style notebook with 60 unpublished aphorisms on Lufthansa Dusseldorf-Newark Friday. I don’t know if it is good or bad. | Tue Apr 27 00:12:23 2010 |
| 178 | There are two types of people; those who try to win and those who try to win arguments. They are never the same. (Wisdom of Fat Tony) | Mon Apr 26 18:23:20 2010 |
| 177 | You are guaranteed a repetition when you hear the declaration “never again”. | Sun Apr 25 23:43:55 2010 |
| 176 | When someone starts a sentence with “simply” you should expect to hear something very complicated. | Sun Apr 25 20:49:39 2010 |
| 175 | Nothing is more permanent than “temporary” arrangements deficits truces& relationships;& nothing is more temporary than “permanent” ones. | Sun Apr 25 20:07:04 2010 |
| 174 | People usually apologize so they can do it again. | Sun Apr 25 13:26:33 2010 |
| 173 | Those who do not think that employment is systemic slavery are either blind or employed. | Sun Apr 25 11:04:45 2010 |
| 172 | Just like poets and artists bureaucrats are born not made; it takes normal humans extraordinary effort to keep attention on such tasks | Sat Apr 24 21:46:04 2010 |
| 171 | An AntiPlatonist finding new treasures in Plato note 128 http://TwitPWR.com/HWI/ | Sat Apr 24 13:35:10 2010 |
| 170 | (cont) …filmmakers to impress other filmmakers painters to impress art dealers; but authors who write to impress book editors fail! | Fri Apr 23 22:05:30 2010 |
| 169 | Costs of specialization:Architects build to impress othr archtcts;models are thin to impress othr models;academics to impress othr acdmcs… | Fri Apr 23 19:50:34 2010 |
| 168 | @Erwan_Le_Corre Just as smooth surfaces comptve sports and specializd. work fossilize the mind-body compttve academia fossilizes the soul | Fri Apr 23 09:41:27 2010 |
| 167 | @yzilber There is no strictly “rational” definition of “rationality” which is why I cringe when I hear the word used by social scientists. | Fri Apr 23 08:58:32 2010 |
| 166 | @yzilber Compliance with the straightjacket of narrow (Aristotelian) logic & avoidance of fatal inconsistencies are not the same thing. | Fri Apr 23 08:48:10 2010 |
| 165 | Attendd a symposium named after a drinking party in whch nonnerds talked abt love; alas no drinking but mercifully nobody talked abt love | Fri Apr 23 06:24:22 2010 |
| 164 | The most painful moments are not those spent with uninteresting people; it is with uninteresting people trying to be interesting. | Thu Apr 22 16:24:13 2010 |
| 163 | Another Fat Tony sucker problem:It is as difficult to change someone’s opinions as it is to change his tastes. | Thu Apr 22 15:55:22 2010 |
| 162 | Erwan Le Corre the most “naturally fit” man on the planet Note 127 http://TwitPWR.com/HIs/ | Wed Apr 21 14:29:23 2010 |
| 161 | Hatred is much harder to fake than love. You hear of fake love; never of fake hate. | Wed Apr 21 00:36:21 2010 |
| 160 | Hatred is much harder to fake than love. | Tue Apr 20 20:42:17 2010 |
| 159 | To value a person is consider the difference between how impressive he/she was at the first encounter & at the most recent one. | Tue Apr 20 16:42:25 2010 |
| 158 | Upon arriving to the hotel the fellow had a porter carry his luggage; I later saw him lifting weights in the gym. (Generalized Ludic fallacy | Tue Apr 20 13:03:27 2010 |
| 157 | It seems that it is the most unsuccessful people who give the most advice particularly for writing and financial matters. | Tue Apr 20 12:27:39 2010 |
| 156 | The sucker’s trap is when you focus on what you know and what others don’t know rather than the reverse. | Tue Apr 20 12:12:47 2010 |
| 155 | Real mathematicians understand completeness; real philosophers understand incompleteness; the rest don’t really understand anything | Tue Apr 20 00:24:42 2010 |
| 154 | (How? errors in SPACE prgrm are Gaussian;errors in fields that matter are Black-Gray-Swannish; govts hve exhstd the Gaussian domains).Sorry | Mon Apr 19 22:55:18 2010 |
| 153 | Sadly Obama talking ab going to Moon/Mars (linear domain) when we know nothing abt the complex (volcanos econ climate).SPACE builds hubris | Mon Apr 19 22:26:56 2010 |
| 152 | You can be certain that the CEO of a corp has a lot to worry about when he announces publicly that “there is nothing to worry about”. | Mon Apr 19 13:09:00 2010 |
| 151 | 3-Corrol: Same with happiness; we don’t know what it means how to reach it but we know extremely well how to avoid unhappiness. | Mon Apr 19 00:18:25 2010 |
| 150 | The most depressing thing about couples arguing in a restaurant is that they are almost always unaware of the true subject of argument. | Sun Apr 18 22:46:13 2010 |
| 149 | 2-Corollary: The best way to spot a charlatan: someone who tells you what to do instead of what NOT to do. (Stockbrokers Consultants…) | Sun Apr 18 22:05:41 2010 |
| 148 | 1- Knowledge is subtractive not additive; what we subtract (reduction by what does not work what NOT to do) not what we add (what to do) | Sun Apr 18 22:03:36 2010 |
| 147 | The best test of robustness to reputational damage is your emotional state (fear joy boredom) when you get an email from a journalist.(GS) | Sun Apr 18 14:55:25 2010 |
| 146 | You can only convince those persons who can benefit from being convinced. | Sun Apr 18 14:41:26 2010 |
| 145 | People used to wear ordinary clothes weekdays and formal attire on Sunday. Today it is the exact reverse. [Sacred & Profane] | Sun Apr 18 13:25:23 2010 |
| 144 | 2- If you know in the morning what your day looks like with any precision you are a little bit dead -the more precision the more dead. | Sun Apr 18 13:00:28 2010 |
| 143 | (answr) Not rewarmed Rousseau rather to borrow the expr. putting back Plato on his feet (he stand on his head)& systematzng Nietzsche | Sat Apr 17 20:13:30 2010 |
| 142 | @johndurant @Erwan_Le_Corre 2- If you know in the morning what your day looks like with any precision you are a little bit dead. | Sat Apr 17 12:19:00 2010 |
| 141 | 1- We are Paleo hunters; only truly ALIVE in these moments when we improvise; no schedule just small surprises & stimuli frm envrmnt. | Sat Apr 17 12:14:48 2010 |
| 140 | Badmouthing is the only genuine expression of admiration. | Fri Apr 16 14:48:51 2010 |
| 139 | The test of whether you really liked a book is if you reread it –the rest is spin -UPDATED http://TwitPWR.com/Hkd/ | Thu Apr 15 21:09:37 2010 |
| 138 | There is no intermediate state between ice & water but there one is between life & death: employment. | Thu Apr 15 20:15:03 2010 |
| 137 | I trust people who make a living lying down or standing up more than those who do so sitting down. (From a flaneur who reads in bed (revisd) | Thu Apr 15 19:31:29 2010 |
| 136 | The opposite of enemy is a dull life. | Thu Apr 15 18:12:25 2010 |
| 135 | People often need to suspend their self-promotion; someone in their lives they do not need to impress. This explains dog ownership. | Thu Apr 15 11:16:35 2010 |
| 134 | @drebesd no Nietzsche while great stylist did not have Plato’s clarity & systematizing mind; NOBODY Anti-Platonist comes close to Plato | Wed Apr 14 20:21:14 2010 |
| 133 | Hatred is love with a typo somewhere in the computer code correctable but very hard to find. | Wed Apr 14 19:45:25 2010 |
| 132 | In 2500 y no human came w/ the brilliance depth elegance wit& imagination matching Plato to displace him & protect us from Pl legacy. | Wed Apr 14 19:03:10 2010 |
| 131 | @tom_peters I agree; it is harmless to entertain philistines who would otherwise be into sports econ books have caused harm. | Wed Apr 14 11:51:36 2010 |
| 130 | Biz books: a category invntd by bookstores for writngs that have no depth no style no empirical rigor & no linguistic sophistication | Wed Apr 14 10:53:05 2010 |
| 129 | The economy in brief: they are calmly waiting in line to be slaughtered while thinking it is for a Broadway show. | Tue Apr 13 18:40:53 2010 |
| 128 | Hard science gives sensational results with a horribly boring process; philosophy gives boring results with a (cont) twitlonger.com/… | Mon Apr 12 14:36:47 2010 |
| 127 | Technology’s double punishment is to make us both age prematurely and live longer. | Mon Apr 12 11:26:30 2010 |
| 126 | You can replace lies with truth; but myth is only displaced with a narrative. | Sun Apr 11 17:19:50 2010 |
| 125 | They agree that chess training only improves chess skills but disagree that classroom training (almost) only improves classroom skills. | Sun Apr 11 15:59:59 2010 |
| 124 | Never rid someone of an illusion unless you can replace it in his mind with another illusion. | Sun Apr 11 11:43:16 2010 |
| 123 | (Cont) The beauty of conscious ignorance if you can practice it is that it makes things infinite. | Sat Apr 10 21:45:33 2010 |
| 122 | @blackswanreport Thanks; I gave them a bland 15 min summary of my old problemabsolutely nothing new. | Sat Apr 10 21:44:15 2010 |
| 121 | Something finite but with unknown upper bound is epistemically equivalent to something infinite. I call this epistemic Infinity. | Sat Apr 10 21:42:11 2010 |
| 120 | To be a philosopher is to know by reasoning and reasoning only what others can only learn from their mistakes. | Fri Apr 09 19:17:45 2010 |
| 119 | For everything I use boredom in place of a clock as a biological wristwatch under constraints of politeness. | Fri Apr 09 16:20:05 2010 |
| 118 | You are rich if and only if money you refuse tastes better than money you accept. | Fri Apr 09 13:37:01 2010 |
| 117 | I wonder if crooks can conceive that honest people can be shrewder than them. | Fri Apr 09 11:00:00 2010 |
| 116 | Note 122 in the notebook http://TwitPWR.com/GOE/ | Fri Apr 09 00:21:12 2010 |
| 115 | (Cont) An individual has a conscience feels shame & honor. The collective (institutions) does not aggregate them -despicable bureaucrats. | Thu Apr 08 13:01:37 2010 |
| 114 | Institutions can’t have the same virtues (honor truthfulness courage loyalty tenacity generosity) as individuals. It makes us fragile. | Thu Apr 08 12:23:10 2010 |
| 113 | What makes us fragile is that institutions cannot have the same virtues (honor truthfulness courage loyalty tenacity) as individuals. | Thu Apr 08 12:16:26 2010 |
| 112 | I trust everyone except those who tell me they are trustworthy. | Wed Apr 07 21:03:45 2010 |
| 111 | Technology is the unrelenting mollification of man that self-inflicted injury… | Wed Apr 07 13:44:06 2010 |
| 110 | Help! Help! I have to concentrate all my problems in one slogan –and 15 minutes Need suggstions. Thanks followers http://TwitPWR.com/GEf/ | Tue Apr 06 19:34:20 2010 |
| 109 | A genius is someone with flaws harder to imitate than his qualities. | Tue Apr 06 14:32:30 2010 |
| 108 | It is easier to disguise ignorance than knowledge. | Tue Apr 06 13:07:51 2010 |
| 107 | It is the appearance of inconsistency& not its absence that makes people attractive. [why they put Socrates to death] | Sun Apr 04 18:50:05 2010 |
| 106 | It is the appearance of inconsistency& not its absence that makes people attractive. | Sun Apr 04 17:19:16 2010 |
| 105 | Some reticent people use silence to conceal their intelligence; but most do so to hide the lack of it. (Revised) | Sun Apr 04 14:39:20 2010 |
| 104 | Some reserved people use silence to hide their intelligence; but most do so to conceal the lack of it. | Sun Apr 04 13:45:54 2010 |
| 103 | Usually what we call “good listener” is someone with skillfully polished indifference. | Sat Apr 03 15:50:01 2010 |
| 102 | The three most harmful addictions are heroin carbohydrates and a monthly salary. | Fri Apr 02 17:45:51 2010 |
| 101 | Before checking the news today check how much the 400-700 hours of nongossip media exposure in 2007 helped you make sense of 2008 etc. | Fri Apr 02 12:24:17 2010 |
| 100 | Platonic minds expect life to be like film w defined endings.APlatonic ones expect film to be life & except fr death distrust all ending | Thu Apr 01 23:47:23 2010 |
| 99 | The opposite of success isn’t failure it is name dropping. (There are no obj definitions of failure & success there are for …) | Thu Apr 01 19:35:37 2010 |
| 98 | Most of what they call humility is successfully disguised arrogance. | Thu Apr 01 15:40:32 2010 |
| 97 | The tragedy of virtue is that the more boring unoriginal and sermonizing the proverb/tweet the harder it is to implement. | Wed Mar 31 14:29:36 2010 |
| 96 | To see if you like where you live: check if you are as happy returning as you were leaving. Also applies to work/relationships… | Wed Mar 31 14:04:17 2010 |
| 95 | My problem of knowledge is that there are many more books on birds written by ornithologists than books on birds written by birds. [OPACITY] | Wed Mar 31 00:28:50 2010 |
| 94 | Mathematics is to knowledge what an artificial hand is to the real one. Do not amputate to replace. | Tue Mar 30 21:53:52 2010 |
| 93 | Pomponius Atticus severely ill tried the Stoic way to take his own life. Having chosen starvation he was cured of his illness. | Tue Mar 30 11:01:43 2010 |
| 92 | Pure generosity is when you help the ingrate. Every other form is self-serving [Cont:genrosity/Kantian ethics] | Mon Mar 29 14:50:33 2010 |
| 91 | For the ancients forecasting historical events was an insult to the God(s); for me it is an insult to science. | Mon Mar 29 13:24:09 2010 |
| 90 | A maxim/tweet allows me to have the last word without even starting a conversation. | Sun Mar 28 21:42:42 2010 |
| 89 | Since Cato the 1st sign of aging is when one starts blaming the new generatn for “shallowness” & praising the previous one for its “values” | Sun Mar 28 21:38:18 2010 |
| 88 | No author should be considered as having failed until he starts writing about writing. | Sun Mar 28 15:29:41 2010 |
| 87 | The tragedy of the information age is that the toxicity of data increases much faster than its benefits. Worse (cont) twitlonger.com/… | Sun Mar 28 13:10:01 2010 |
| 86 | Unrequited hate is vastly more diminishing for the self than unrequited love. You can’t react by demonizing. | Sat Mar 27 18:29:23 2010 |
| 85 | I may forgive someone for harming me; I can’t possibly forgive anyone for boring me. | Sat Mar 27 18:08:06 2010 |
| 84 | (comm2: Nothing wrong with”generous” acts with “warm glow” or salvation; they are not to be linguistically conflated with deontic actions) | Sat Mar 27 17:02:11 2010 |
| 83 | (Comment: A generous act is precisely what should aim at NO reward neither financial nor social nor emotional; deontic not utilitarian) | Sat Mar 27 16:48:57 2010 |
| 82 | I wonder if those who advocate generosity for its rewards notice the inconsistency or if wt they call generosity is an investment strategy | Sat Mar 27 16:35:57 2010 |
| 81 | Just as there are authors who enjoy “having written” and others whp enjoy writing there are books you (cont) twitlonger.com/… | Sat Mar 27 16:15:13 2010 |
| 80 | Ralph Nader incorruptible: this is the 2nd time in my life I encounter someone who does not have any fake cell (cont) twitlonger.com/… | Sat Mar 27 13:15:33 2010 |
| 79 | (For those too slow to get my point: we gloss over great financial crimes (bankers) great cases of incompetence (Bernanke et econ establ).. | Fri Mar 26 21:49:33 2010 |
| 78 | Mediocre men tend to be outraged by small insults but passive subdued & silent in front of very large ones | Fri Mar 26 21:01:51 2010 |
| 77 | True humility is when you can surprise yourself more than others; the rest is either shyness or good marketing. | Fri Mar 26 15:30:17 2010 |
| 76 | Since Plato Western thought has focused on True/False; high time to shift it to Robust/Fragile & social epistemology to Sucker/Nonsucker | Fri Mar 26 14:36:49 2010 |
| 75 | Economics cannot digest the idea that the collective (& the aggregate) are disproportionately less predictable than individuals | Fri Mar 26 12:12:16 2010 |
| 74 | People reserve standard compliments to those who do not threaten their pride; the others they praise by calling “arrogant” | Fri Mar 26 12:00:58 2010 |
| 73 | The imagination of the genius vastly surpasses his intellect; the intellect of the academic vastly surpasses his imagination | Thu Mar 25 20:17:01 2010 |
| 72 | The 4 most influential modrns Darwin Marx Freud & (early) Einstein were scholars but not academics. Hard to do genuine wrk w institutions | Thu Mar 25 19:42:44 2010 |
| 71 | It is easier to remember your emails that were not answered than emails you did not answer | Thu Mar 25 18:12:24 2010 |
| 70 | A good tweet/maxim shd 1) surprise you 2) be true (countrintuitv) & 3) be symmetric (one assertion one negation) or rythmic | Thu Mar 25 16:42:17 2010 |
| 69 | The fool views himself more unique and others more generic; the wise views himself more generic and others more unique | Thu Mar 25 16:29:25 2010 |
| 68 | Corrollary: Someone who says “I am busy” is either declaring incompetence (and lack of control of his life) or trying to get rid of you. | Thu Mar 25 15:11:37 2010 |
| 67 | Only in recent history has “working hard” signaled pride rather than shame for lack of talent finesse & mostly sprezzatura | Thu Mar 25 12:14:20 2010 |
| 66 | Academia is to knowledge what prostitution is to love; close enough on the surface but to the nonsucker not exactly the same thing [2nd ed | Wed Mar 24 20:05:13 2010 |
| 65 | Rumors are only valuable when they are denied. | Tue Mar 23 19:03:30 2010 |
| 64 | You only way to know whether you liked a book is if you re-read it -the rest is spin www.fooledbyrandomness.com/favbooks.html | Fri Mar 19 12:08:58 2010 |
| 63 | Writers are remembered for their best work politicians for their worst mistakes; & businessmen are almst never remembered.[repost/error] | Mon Mar 15 13:10:05 2010 |
| 62 | The 20th C was the bankruptcy of the social utopia. The 21st will be that of the technological one. [From one Procrustean bed to another.] | Sun Mar 14 12:53:08 2010 |
| 61 | In nature we never repeat the same motion. In captivity (office gym commute sports) life is just repetitive stress injury. No randomness | Sat Mar 13 17:51:36 2010 |
| 60 | Using as excuse others’ failure of common sense is in itself a failure of common sense. | Fri Mar 12 17:33:19 2010 |
| 59 | Dubai borrowed to put vanity buildings on postcards; America and W. Europe need to borrow to just survive. | Fri Mar 12 12:52:12 2010 |
| 58 | We unwittingly amplify commonalities with friends dissimilarities with strangers & contrasts with enemies. | Thu Mar 11 23:30:16 2010 |
| 57 | The mark of a mediocre mind is the subdued and passive reaction in front of the truly exceptional. | Thu Mar 11 19:32:22 2010 |
| 56 | [Explanation: The biggest error since Socrates has been to believe that lack of clarity is the SOURCE of all our ills not the result. ] | Wed Mar 10 19:22:28 2010 |
| 55 | Mental clarity is the child of courage not the other way around. | Wed Mar 10 19:07:42 2010 |
| 54 | What they call play (gym travel) looks like work;what I call work (effortless daydreaming) looks like play.They lose freedom trying harder. | Wed Mar 10 11:27:38 2010 |
| 53 | The differences between Goldman Sachs & the mafia: GS has a better legal-regulatory expertise; but the mafia understands public opinion. | Tue Mar 09 15:13:17 2010 |
| 52 | Common minds find similarities in stories (& situations) finer minds detect differences [Essay on the Universal & the Particular] | Mon Mar 08 08:47:00 2010 |
| 51 | I wish to say some day about someone “Voilà un homme!” as Napoleon said upon meeting Goethe: mixture of passion & intellect (& elegance too) | Sun Mar 07 13:45:20 2010 |
| 50 | Ãœbermen tolerate others’ small inconsistencies though not the large ones;losers tolerate others’ large inconsistencies though not small ones | Fri Mar 05 14:16:58 2010 |
| 49 | If you want people to read a book tell them it is overrated. | Sun Feb 28 21:07:15 2010 |
| 48 | Their sabbatical is to work six days and rest for one; my sabbatical is to work for (part of) a day and rest for six. | Sun Feb 28 15:05:56 2010 |
| 47 | City-states organize by tinkering; nation-states produce bureaucracies empty suits Bernankes deficits and the toobigtofail. Too obvious. | Sat Feb 27 14:49:33 2010 |
| 46 | answ:[ If you can’t detect (w/out understanding) the difference betw sacred & profane you’ll never know what religion means. Same with art ] | Fri Feb 26 15:36:29 2010 |
| 45 | Atheism/materialism means treating the dead as if they were unborn. I won’t. By respecting the sacred you reinvent religion. | Fri Feb 26 12:47:14 2010 |
| 44 | I wonder if a lion (or a cannibal) would pay a high premium for free-range humans. [modern bondage] | Thu Feb 25 16:00:39 2010 |
| 43 | Writing is the art of repeating oneself without anyone noticing. | Wed Feb 24 20:40:59 2010 |
| 42 | You know you have influence when people start noticing your absence more than the presence of others. | Tue Feb 23 23:26:43 2010 |
| 41 | Dream to be a janitor in a philosophy department came true! http://fooledbyrandomness.com/philo-lecture.htm | Tue Feb 23 19:07:00 2010 |
| 40 | (cont)… what they call literature I call journalism; what they call journalism I call gossip & what they call gossip I call voyeurism. | Tue Feb 23 15:54:34 2010 |
| 39 | How superb to become wise without being boring; how sad to be boring without being wise [Bernanke]. | Mon Feb 22 11:30:39 2010 |
| 38 | The role of the media is best seen in the journey from Cato the elder to Sarah Palin. Do some extrapolation if you want to be scared. | Sun Feb 21 12:12:23 2010 |
| 37 | [Ethics Cognitive Dissonnance & Diffusion of Responsibility Chap why we need to worry about econ “risk experts” & other charlatans] | Sun Feb 21 11:49:23 2010 |
| 36 | Ethical man accords his profession to his beliefs instead of according his beliefs to his profession. Rarer and rarer since middle ages. | Sun Feb 21 11:35:32 2010 |
| 35 | Most people write so they can remember things; I write so I can forget them. | Sat Feb 20 20:29:06 2010 |
| 34 | Corollary to Moore’s laws: every ten years collective wisdom degrades by half. | Sat Feb 20 17:58:08 2010 |
| 33 | I wonder whether a bitter enemy would be jealous if he discovered that I hated someone else. | Sat Feb 20 17:25:52 2010 |
| 32 | What they call philosophy I call literature; what they call literature I call journalism; and what they call journalism I call gossip. | Sat Feb 20 15:58:23 2010 |
| 31 | It is much harder to be a Stoic when wealthy powerful and respected than when destitute miserable and lonely. [s. VII] | Sat Feb 20 15:37:55 2010 |
| 30 | Academics are only useful when they try to be useless and dangerous when they try to be useful. | Sat Feb 20 13:03:47 2010 |
| 29 | Success is to be in middle adulthood what you dreamed to be in late childhood. The rest comes from loss of control. | Sat Feb 20 10:42:44 2010 |
| 28 | A good foe is far more loyal far more predictable and to the clever far more useful than any admirer | Fri Feb 19 23:16:22 2010 |
| 27 | You will get the most attention from those who hate you. No friend no admirer and no partner will flatter you with equal curiosity. | Fri Feb 19 22:27:53 2010 |
| 26 | Mediterraneans scorn instructions but bow to authority; Anglo-Saxons bow to instructions but scorn authority. | Fri Feb 19 21:25:00 2010 |
| 25 | Most modern technologies are deferred punishment. | Fri Feb 19 20:48:45 2010 |
| 24 | Evolution does not teach by convincing but by destroying. [Fat Tony on why Robert Merton univ tenures in econ and bailouts are dangers] | Fri Feb 19 15:55:50 2010 |
| 23 | The Stoic sage shd withdraw frm public efforts when unheeded & state is corrupt beyond repair.[Seneca] Wiser to wait for selfdestruction. | Fri Feb 19 11:26:47 2010 |
| 22 | There is nothing deemed harmful (in general) that cannot be beneficial in some particular instances. Universals are weaker under complexity. | Thu Feb 18 23:18:31 2010 |
| 21 | The average of expectations is typically > than the expectation of averages. (“Don’t cross a river because it is on average 4 f deep”) | Thu Feb 18 13:04:13 2010 |
| 20 | Medieval man was a cog in a wheel he did not understand; modern man is a cog in a more complicated system he thinks he understands. [Ch. 5] | Thu Feb 18 11:47:25 2010 |
| 19 | Giving businessreaders my book: like giving vintage Bordeaux to drinkers of Diet Coke and listening to their comments about it [TBS-2nd ed] | Thu Feb 18 11:21:47 2010 |
| 18 | They will envy you for your success for your wealth for your intelligence for your looks for your status –but rarely for your wisdom | Wed Feb 17 21:49:24 2010 |
| 17 | The idea is to NEVER answer critics just aim to stay in print –make sure people will be reading me long after they are dead. | Tue Feb 16 16:24:10 2010 |
| 16 | Modernity: We created youth without heroism age without wisdom and life without grandeur. | Tue Feb 16 11:53:34 2010 |
| 15 | It is much easier to scam people for billions than for just millions. [on Madoff & US gov-1st Lesson in the Epistemology of Fat Tony] | Sun Feb 14 10:46:52 2010 |
| 14 | Charm lies in the unsaid the unwritten and the undisplayed. It takes mastery to control silence. | Fri Feb 12 10:20:15 2010 |
| 13 | We are better at (involuntarily) DOING out of the box than (voluntarily) THINKING out of the box. Thinking is just ornamental; for show-off | Fri Feb 12 08:29:11 2010 |
| 12 | I read nothing from the past 300 years; I drink nothing from the past 3000 years; but I talk to no ordinary man over 40. | Thu Feb 11 12:09:21 2010 |
| 11 | In science you need to understand the world; in business you need others to misunderstand it. | Wed Feb 10 11:12:28 2010 |
| 10 | CNBC journalists are imbeciles. “You need skills to get a BMW skills + luck to become a Buffet” -> into “Buffet has no skills”. Imbeciles. | Tue Feb 09 14:04:24 2010 |
| 9 | Edmund Phelps got the “Nobel” for writings no one reads theories no one uses and lectures no one understands. [Panel in Moscow] | Mon Feb 08 10:38:16 2010 |
| 8 | Education makes the wise slightly wiser but makes the fool vastly more dangerous. [Overconfidence Chapt 4] | Mon Feb 08 10:11:03 2010 |
| 7 | We ask “why is he rich (or poor)?” not “why isn’t he richer (poorer)?”;”why is the crisis so deep?” not “why isn’t it deeper?”. [Chapter 4] | Sat Feb 06 18:50:03 2010 |
| 6 | I trust those who earn their living lying on their back more than those who do so sitting on a chair (hint: I read in bed…) | Mon Feb 01 18:13:00 2010 |
| 5 | Don’t trust a man on a salary -except if it is minimum wage. Those on bondage & βάναυσοι would do anything to “feed a family”. [Chapter 3] | Mon Feb 01 14:48:29 2010 |
| 4 | I’d rather be a janitor in a philosophy department than Chaired Prof at Harvard Business School; or flaneur in NY than a hotshot at Davos | Wed Jan 27 14:05:21 2010 |
| 3 | I now take a hot bath after reading emails from businessmen or journalists; I then feel purified from the profane until the next email. | Thu Jan 21 15:39:23 2010 |
| 2 | We worry about “too big” but the biggest error-prone centralized top-down institution in the world is the US Gov. It is getting bigger. | Tue Oct 06 22:16:46 2009 |
| 1 | You cannot express the holy in terms made for the profane; but you can discuss the profane in terms made for the holy | Wed Jul 08 00:16:04 2009 |