My experience from Latin America, India, and the Persian Gulf: you meet someone who appears very nice, thoughtful, sophisticated, erudite (reads, say Calvino)… only to see him treat waiters and drivers in a way to intentionally deprive them of their humanity, as if they were another brand of living things that cannot be possibly worthy of respect. They tend to add insult to the injury of the have-nots.

via My experience from Latin America, India,… – Nassim Nicholas Taleb | Facebook.

A good man is warm and respectful towards the waiter or people of lower rank. A better man does so even if they are not from his ethnicity. An even better man is both nice to the lower rank and only arrogant with the powerful. The converse (at three levels) is true for the half man.

[REVISED. The point is not to be arrogant, except that the bias is to believe that arrogance towards those is power is arrogance, when in fact it can be a check against their power.]

via A good man is warm and respectful… – Nassim Nicholas Taleb | Facebook.

Intelligence without imagination: a deadly combination.

via Intelligence without imagination: a… – Nassim Nicholas Taleb | Facebook.

SOLOMONIC WISDOM AND SKIN IN THE GAME.

King Solomon was called to rule on a fight between two women of the same household who both claimed to be the mother of an infant. Solomon ordered a sword and said he would divide the baby and give half to each woman.The fake mother consented, and the true mother (who had skin in the game) begged him to keep the infant alive by giving it to the other woman. Solomon then granted the infant to the woman who agreed to give up on her rights in order to keep it alive.

Beyond the wisdom of the ruling (heavily discussed in history), there is the other side of the story: use of skin in the game as method for distinction between true and fake.

via SOLOMONIC WISDOM AND SKIN IN THE GAME…. – Nassim Nicholas Taleb | Facebook.

Consider the difference between those trying to sway public opinion against a person, a corporation, or a system, and those who actually commit acts of rebellion by attacking and using something other than words, jokes, complaints, pamphlets, and diatribes. The first reinforces the subject of attack by showing its lack of vulnerability; the second causes contagion. Just having skin in the game, and the exhibition of physical courage unlocks the status quo.

via Consider the difference between those… – Nassim Nicholas Taleb | Facebook.