Nassim Nicholas Taleb Quotes Page 8
Books by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Best 303 Quotes by Nassim Nicholas Taleb – Page 8 of 11
The Bed of Procrustes Quotes
“Suckers think that you cure greed with money, addiction with substances, expert problems with experts, banking with bankers, economics with economists, and debt crises with debt spending.”
“The best way to measure the loss of intellectual sophistication – this 'nerdification', to put it bluntly – is in the growing disappearance of sarcasm, as mechanic minds take insults a bit too literally.”
“The classical man's worst fear was inglorious death; the modern man's worst fear is just death.”
“The curious mind embraces science; the gifted and sensitive, the arts; the practical, business; the leftover becomes an economist.”
“The difference between slaves in Roman and Ottoman days and today’s employees is that slaves did not need to flatter their boss.”
“The fact that people in countries with cold weather tend to be harder working, richer, less relaxed, less amicable, less tolerant of idleness, more (over) organized and more harried than those in hotter climates should make us wonder whether wealth is mere indemnification, and motivation is just overcompensation for not having a real life.”
“The imagination of the genius vastly surpasses his intellect; the intellect of the academic vastly surpasses his imagination.”
“The opposite of manliness isn’t cowardice; it’s technology.”
“The person you are the most afraid to contradict is yourself.”
“The problem of knowledge is that there are many more books on birds written by ornithologists than books on birds written by birds and books on ornithologists written by birds.”
“The rationalist imagines an imbecile-free society; the empiricist an imbecile-proof one, or even better, a rationalist-proof one.”
“The traits I respect are erudition and the courage to stand up when half-men are afraid for their reputation. Any idiot can be intelligent.”
“There is no intermediate state between ice and water but there is one between life and death: employment.”
“They agree that chess training only improves chess skills but disagree that classroom training (almost) only improves classroom skills.”
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“They think that intelligence is about noticing things that are relevant (detecting patterns); in a complex world, intelligence consists in ignoring things that are irrelevant (avoiding false patterns).”
“They will envy you for your success, your wealth, for your intelligence, for your looks, for your status - but rarely for your wisdom.”
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“In psychology, there is a phenomenon called reactance: when we are deprived of an option, we suddenly deem it more attractive. It is a kind of act of defiance.
It is also known as the Romeo and Juliet effect: because the love between the tragic Shakespearean teenagers is forbidden, it knows no bounds.”
“Those who do not think that employment is systemic slavery are either blind or employed.”
“To bankrupt a fool, give him information.”
“To understand how something works, figure out how to break it.”
“True humility is when you can surprise yourself more than others; the rest is either shyness or good marketing.”
“What I learned on my own I still remember.”
“What organized dating sites fail to understand is that the people are far more interesting in what they don't say about themselves.”
“When people give you two reasons, consider the first one to be bogus.”
“When you beat up someone physically, you get exercise and stress relief; when you assault him verbally on the Internet, you just harm yourself.”
“Wisdom in the young is as unattractive as frivolity in the elderly.”
“Wit seduces by signaling intelligence without nerdiness.”
“Work destroys your soul by stealthily invading your brain during the hours not officially spent working; be selective about professions.”
“You are rich if money you refuse tastes better than money you accept.”
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“You can tell how uninteresting a person is by asking him whom he finds interesting.”
“You know you have influence when people start noticing your absence more than the presence of others.”
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“In 1998, it was undeniable that the stock market boom was closely tied to the Fed’s policies. In July, Greenspan warned that stock prices might be unsustainably high, which made traders panic at the thought that the Fed would raise rates and tighten the money supply.
Between July and August, stock market prices fell by about 18 percent. In response, the Fed cut rates again from 5.5 percent to about 4.8 percent in just a couple of months. The stock market bounced back.”
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