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What Nassim Taleb can teach us

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Re: What Nassim Taleb can teach us

#21

Post by trb8 »

RachelF wrote: post #19
qubex wrote: post #3

I really appreciate his books, The Black Swan and Antifragile particularly, though it does seem to me he's set up something of a cottage industry churning the same general idea into a sequence of very similar books. Then again, as long as he has extra stuff to add, and a readership willing to purchase them, I suppose this is utterly acceptable. However, as a person, he seems to be an absolute rabid nutter. At one poi…

He has gone a bit off the deep end recently. I guess too much arguing with opponents radicalised him, similar to Dawkins. IMHO his best book is his first mass market one: "Fooled by Randomness". It contains all the big ideas of his subsequent books and is an easy, entertaining read.

> IMHO his best book is his first mass market one: "Fooled by Randomness". It contains all the big ideas of his subsequent books and is an east, entertaining read.

Let me second this suggestion. "Fooled by Randomness" is great and I enjoyed it a lot. I've read it multiple times. I read the "The Black Swan" once and thought it was good. I did not finish "Antifragile".

Re: What Nassim Taleb can teach us

#22

Post by eldavido »

RachelF wrote: post #19
qubex wrote: post #3

I really appreciate his books, The Black Swan and Antifragile particularly, though it does seem to me he's set up something of a cottage industry churning the same general idea into a sequence of very similar books. Then again, as long as he has extra stuff to add, and a readership willing to purchase them, I suppose this is utterly acceptable. However, as a person, he seems to be an absolute rabid nutter. At one poi…

He has gone a bit off the deep end recently. I guess too much arguing with opponents radicalised him, similar to Dawkins. IMHO his best book is his first mass market one: "Fooled by Randomness". It contains all the big ideas of his subsequent books and is an easy, entertaining read.

Not really. I think he's starting to converge on "skin in the game" as a unifying thread for much of the other work. I could be wrong, but having read FBR and TBS, I don't recall seeing it put this simply ("skin in the game") until at least Antifragile, if not later. I view it as more of a progression.

Also, the style of the books is quite different. FBR is closer to a personal essay, whereas TBS is more of a mainstream nonfiction book, and Antifragile is the most philosophical/abstract.

Re: What Nassim Taleb can teach us

#24

Post by paozac »

qubex wrote: post #3

I really appreciate his books, The Black Swan and Antifragile particularly, though it does seem to me he's set up something of a cottage industry churning the same general idea into a sequence of very similar books. Then again, as long as he has extra stuff to add, and a readership willing to purchase them, I suppose this is utterly acceptable. However, as a person, he seems to be an absolute rabid nutter. At one poi…

I've read _The Black Swan_ and was disappointed. He repeats the same concept (that could have been easily expressed in a short article) again and again, while bragging about how clever, cool and refined he is.

One of the most obnoxious writers I know of.

Re: What Nassim Taleb can teach us

#27

Post by WheelsAtLarge »

qubex wrote: post #3

I really appreciate his books, The Black Swan and Antifragile particularly, though it does seem to me he's set up something of a cottage industry churning the same general idea into a sequence of very similar books. Then again, as long as he has extra stuff to add, and a readership willing to purchase them, I suppose this is utterly acceptable. However, as a person, he seems to be an absolute rabid nutter. At one poi…

>>though it does seem to me he's set up something of a cottage industry churning the same general idea into a sequence of very similar books

True, he has, but his thoughts on randomness and such are very important. Yet, they don't seem to get through to the zeitgeist. In my view, he needs to publish a few more books on the subject to emphasise the point even more.

He reminds me of a professor that's always looking down on everyone because no one is smart enough. But, I'm a fan of his work and many of his views.

Re: What Nassim Taleb can teach us

#28

Post by [deleted] »

qubex wrote: post #3

I really appreciate his books, The Black Swan and Antifragile particularly, though it does seem to me he's set up something of a cottage industry churning the same general idea into a sequence of very similar books. Then again, as long as he has extra stuff to add, and a readership willing to purchase them, I suppose this is utterly acceptable. However, as a person, he seems to be an absolute rabid nutter. At one poi…

[deleted]

Re: What Nassim Taleb can teach us

#29

Post by questerzen »

The Black Swan has a good point to make about reliance on over-simplified mathematical models, but Taleb's macho anti-intellectualism is ultimately nihilistic since he denies even the possibility of achieving a deeper mathematical understanding of risk. But what I really have a problem with is that he has created a band of idiot Twitter acolytes who can be counted on to heap brainless abuse at anyone who Taleb chooses to disagree with, which these days seems to be almost everyone with even slightly diverging views to his. He will not attempt reasonable debate, especially when he is faced with superior erudition: in this regard Mary Beard is only the latest of his many victims. The guy is a pure and simple thug.

Re: What Nassim Taleb can teach us

#30

Post by maxthegeek1 »

Jeff Deist, the author of this article is a crypto white nationalist. You can pick up a hint of this from the article above,

"He understands that globalism is not liberalism, that identity and culture matter"

A quote from another article,

"Jeff Deist, President of the Ludwig von Mises Institute, a right-libertarian think tank for promoting Rothbardian anarcho-capitalism and the Austrian School of economics, said of the Alt-right that he found their writings "interesting...and somewhat refreshing".[20] In 2017, Deist concluded a speech at the Mises Institute titled 'For a New Libertarian' with the words, "In other words, blood and soil and God and nation still matter to people. Libertarians ignore this at the risk of irrelevance."[21]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleolibertarianism#United_Sta...

Note that "blood and soil" refers to the nazi phrase "blut and boden".

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