“They’re trying to change the wrong variables,” he said. “Instead of changing models or accepting limitations on their models, they have an idea in their head and the world has to fit to it.”
HatTip to Dave Lull
Now you all know I’m a Taleb super-fan, but this is excellent and hilarious. It’s not going to mean much to the general public, but to those of us following the argument it’s genius. Would love to watch NNT’s face as he saw it for the first time. I like to think that he’d get a few laughs out of it as well, but who knows?
It has 55 views so far and was created with the very fun Xtranormal software. Here’s the link. It’s attributed to Peter Cotton. Snooping around on the net I see a Peter Cotton associated with Taleb’s name here, which leads me to believe that it may have been created this Peter Cotton. Would love to get confirmation on that if only to thank him for a good laugh.
Links to BBC radio interview with NNT. HatTip to Dave Lull.
The intellectual guru Nassim Taleb has published
a collection of philosophical aphorisms.
He explores his favourite theme of the limitations of human knowledge.
NNT BBC Radio 12/14/10
newsnight discussion about internet freedom
I got this from Dailymotion, but it origintates at the BBC.
Shared by JohnH
This (intelligent and humorous) anti-fan might even fall into the camp of ‘enemy’, in the sense that… “You will get the most attention from those who hate you. No friend no admirer and no partner will flatter you with equal curiosity.”
As to its flaws, it reminded me of one of my favorite aphorisms: “the man who early on regards himself as genius is lost.” He inverts the observation that geniuses are often misunderstood to the insight that misunderstood people are geniuses, and critics of such people are imbeciles who don’t even have the taste to appreciate genius. My criticisms are therefore consistent with him being right or wrong, but falsification is not symptomatic of punditry in general or Taleb in particular.