Having spent the past 9 months doing nothing but mathematics, and reading nothing outside of mathematics, I come to realize that the virtue of the subject is not at all in the applications, but in refining one’s instinct against noise and bullshit. I tried to read a magazine article, and couldn’t. But I can still read Erasmus, or Spinoza, or the aphorists.

via Having spent the past 9 months doing… – Nassim Nicholas Taleb | Facebook. 6/28/13