Sagest quote from Nicholas Taleb's twitter feed

[Tetro Kornbluth]

As I have made clear before, I'm not a fan of Nicholas Taleb, the writer of the Black Swan a book that revealed to the world that some times unpredictable events happen, and by surprise too. Basically he is basically the embodiment of sage if sage were a statistician with a history of working in the stock market and a fondness for libertarian talking points while disguising them with his particular brand of 'wisdom'. This is why this thread is in the Economics' board.

Anyway, at Oakvale's inspiration (Thank you Oakvale), I've been reading his twitter feed and I have a compiled a list of his most sage quotes. Which, I'm asking, do you think is the most sage?

Pick 4 from 17 (too many to choose from)

1.

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2.

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3.

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4.

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5.

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6.

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7.

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8.

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9.

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10.

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11.

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12.

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13.

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14.

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15.

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16.

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17.

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Tough, Tough call. I must say.

[Tetro Kornbluth]

OH GOD.

This must be a write-in

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[Filuwaúrdjan]

This is... difficult. Such choice! Such range! Such variety!

[Tetro Kornbluth]

This is... difficult. Such choice! Such range! Such variety!

Yes, people like Snowstalker are mere dabblers compared to Taleb. While Snow deals with some tired worn tropes that would have seen dated in a SWP meeting in 1991, Taleb invents all his own sage and on a wide and all-encompassing scope of topics, creating a near infinity of sage on almost all positions, including ones which contradict each other. Truly, Taleb is one of the master scholar of our time (and the writer of the most important social science book since The Wealth of Nations as according to one 'serious economics' blog I read once).

[traininthedistance]

4 and 10 are the worst, I think.

The idea behind 9 is something that Jane Jacobs, of all people, seemed to be a big proponent of- and as such I can't help but have a modicum of sympathy for it.  Forgive me.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Yes, people like Snowstalker are mere dabblers compared to Taleb. While Snow deals with some tired worn tropes that would have seen dated in a SWP meeting in 1991, Taleb invents all his own sage and on a wide and all-encompassing scope of topics, creating a near infinity of sage on almost all positions, including ones which contradict each other. Truly, Taleb is one of the master scholar of our time (and the writer of the most important social science book since The Wealth of Nations as according to one 'serious economics' blog I read once).

Truly he has a dazzling intellect.

[World politics is up Schmitt creek]

My first instinct is to say 8 is the sagest in the strict definition, but 1, 3, 4, 5, 9, 13, 16, 17 are all at least as morally troubling, and 15 is just baffling.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

#17 is the one that is the most obviously wrong.  When doing any sort of public speaking, of which teaching a class is but one type, one needs to prepare so as to inform your audience in a manner that doesn't waste their valuable time.

[World politics is up Schmitt creek]

#17 is the one that is the most obviously wrong.  When doing any sort of public speaking, of which teaching a class is but one type, one needs to prepare so as to inform your audience in a manner that doesn't waste their valuable time.

Yeah that one's such obvious nonsense that I wouldn't be able to believe he was serious, except he seems to hate academics just enough to convince me that he well might be.

[PSOL]

2 is the only correct one, the rest are wrong

[Vosem]

Taleb is pretty obnoxious (Antifragile, a book which attempts to demonstrate that some things benefit from instability by listing a bunch of professions which distinctly do not benefit from instability, is an even stupider tome than The Black Swan; also Taleb apparently has a habit of going into people's DMs on Twitter to convince them they are not Arabs), but a decent number of these are just correct, and not even very controversially so? True of at least 1, 3, 9, 11.

(But on the other hand, 4, 6, 10, 12 are all ridiculously sagey. Also, even where Taleb is right it tends to be purely by mistake; he generates so many takes that some are just bound to be correct.)

[PSOL]

1, 3, and 11 are immensely wrong and controversial.

[Kingpoleon]

Taleb is pretty obnoxious (Antifragile, a book which attempts to demonstrate that some things benefit from instability by listing a bunch of professions which distinctly do not benefit from instability, is an even stupider tome than The Black Swan; also Taleb apparently has a habit of going into people's DMs on Twitter to convince them they are not Arabs), but a decent number of these are just correct, and not even very controversially so? True of at least 1, 3, 9, 11.

(But on the other hand, 4, 6, 10, 12 are all ridiculously sagey. Also, even where Taleb is right it tends to be purely by mistake; he generates so many takes that some are just bound to be correct.)

Taleb is a very good financial analyst and a very bad philosopher. To be fair, at least in my view, most philosophers are themselves very bad at philosophy. Plantinga is one of the more intelligible philosophers*, and even he isn’t that intelligible.

[World politics is up Schmitt creek]

My first instinct is to say 8 is the sagest in the strict definition, but 1, 3, 4, 5, 9, 13, 16, 17 are all at least as morally troubling, and 15 is just baffling.

I'm happy to report that I am no longer baffled by 15 and am now just wondering how long before this guy goes full MAGA parafascist strength-worship

[Kamala's side hoe]

Voted 6, 7, 11, and 14 with 2020-2021 hindsight.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

Too tempting to revive this thread in the era of forum embeds:

https://twitter.com/nntaleb/status/1129013362262761472?s=20

Montaigne…the Australian singer?

[Vosem]

This isn't directly from Taleb's Twitter account, but the following exchange had me literally on the ground in fits of laughter:

https://twitter.com/RichardHanania/status/1374808176848084992

[beesley]

He's not a remotely original person and shouldn't be treated as such.

[Skill and Chance]

Easily #1

[Skill and Chance]

My first instinct is to say 8 is the sagest in the strict definition, but 1, 3, 4, 5, 9, 13, 16, 17 are all at least as morally troubling, and 15 is just baffling.

I'm happy to report that I am no longer baffled by 15 and am now just wondering how long before this guy goes full MAGA

Taleb started off Trump-curious but hesitant in 2016-17 up to the Bannon firing, became clearly pro-Trump in 2018-19 after the tax cuts and China tariffs, but then turned strongly against Trump in the summer of 2020 because he is a huge COVID hawk.  He later compared January 6th to the Sack of Rome.

[Zinneke]

https://twitter.com/nntaleb/status/1526881853189267458?s=20&t=9mzDaFEcdaCi1h...

Everything he says is true though. Peterson is a simp for thinking that girl is not attractive.