Commencement Address, American University in Beirut, 2016

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Full speech here: Commencement Address, American University in Beirut, 2016

Greed and fear are teachers. I was like people with addictions who have a below average intelligence but were capable of the most ingenious tricks to procure their drugs. When there was risk on the line, suddenly a second brain in me manifested itself and these theorems became interesting. When there is fire, you will run faster than in any competition. Then I became dumb again when there was no real action. Furthermore, as a trader the mathematics we used was adapted to our problem, like a glove, unlike academics with a theory looking for some application. Applying math to practical problems was another business altogether; it meant a deep understanding of the problem before putting the equations on it. So I found getting a doctorate after 12 years in quantitative finance much, much easier than getting simpler degrees.

Pinker, Stewart Brand, Charlatans, Syria, Godel-Popper, Erdogan, Mathematica, Elections | Twitter

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@nntaleb Pinker like charlatans talks to the press but no technical work.@sapinker is a BS artist. https://www.academia.edu/26772813/The_Decline_of_Violent_Conflicts_What_Do_The_Data_Really_Say  pic.twitter.com/50YrAt70kR Permalink 12:56 PM – 16 Aug 2016

@nntaleb Pinker has about every attribute of the charlatan. Nothing short of a charlatan. https://www.academia.edu/26772813/The_Decline_of_Violent_Conflicts_What_Do_The_Data_Really_Say  https://twitter.com/sapinker/status/765546814384799744   Permalink 12:51 PM – 16 Aug 2016

@nntaleb 2/ Steady “Arabization” of Syria, away from its rich Syro-Greco-Aramaic heritage via schooling; shd reverse after Saudi bankruptcy. Permalink 12:46 PM – 16 Aug 2016

@nntaleb 1)The tension in Syria has antecedent:1000 y tension SyroPhoenician Graeco-Roman v/s desert Arabs; cities vs desert.pic.twitter.com/jMvid2I2a3 Permalink 12:33 PM – 16 Aug 2016

@nntaleb Have I ever been subtle with my opinions? @JRLV_Inc Permalink 11:27 AM – 16 Aug 2016

@nntaleb The elephant may misbehave on the occasion (particularly during hormonal episodes) but he is not a predator. Permalink 10:16 AM – 16 Aug 2016

@nntaleb Stewart Brand, you are not a scientist, you are a shrill and a charlatan. @stewartbrand @dawallach @berggruenInst http://www.fooledbyrandomness.com/PrecautionaryPrinciple.html   Permalink 10:05 AM – 16 Aug 2016

@nntaleb Refine your mind, avoiding BS, journos,& statistical noise to the point that a logical flaw/nonsense sound like a jarring note in a concert. Permalink 10:02 AM – 16 Aug 2016

@nntaleb Fucking idiot it is NOT Pascal’s wager! @carlosortegap http://www.fooledbyrandomness.com/PrecautionaryPrinciple.html   Permalink 9:01 AM – 16 Aug 2016

@nntaleb Rule: No brain surgery for aheadache if painkiller (or a night’s sleep) can do. #GMOs: a risky unscientific scam.https://twitter.com/michaelpollan/status/765248478851239936   Permalink 8:57 AM – 16 Aug 2016

@nntaleb A paper to present to @DrCirillo at his conference in Leiden. With mistakes.pic.twitter.com/O3aA8AvR02 Permalink 8:50 AM – 16 Aug 2016

@nntaleb IYI (intellectuals yet idiots) in UK condem screening of Salafis but ignore bullying/murder of apostates/hate speechhttps://twitter.com/Iram_Ramzan/status/765261728204587008   Permalink 12:51 PM – 15 Aug 2016

@nntaleb Plautus: “Eru’meus elephanti corio circumtentust” My master has the *skin of an elephant* @bradd_libby Permalink 11:27 AM – 15 Aug 2016

@nntaleb Elephant. My favorite animal: takes no crap, gives no crap, harms no-one but when one tries to harm it, never forgets. Permalink 11:18 AM – 15 Aug 2016

@nntaleb Guess (an animal)https://twitter.com/oinkbaamoo/status/765245086619828224   Permalink 11:03 AM – 15 Aug 2016

@nntaleb All books have animals now in UK @JamesNamorpic.twitter.com/j6LMapwKyN Permalink 10:31 AM – 15 Aug 2016

@nntaleb Thing for squid Ink went too far. Publisher asked “what animal on the cover of Antifragile?” I said “squid!”. Close.pic.twitter.com/bOYrhrwO2X Permalink 10:06 AM – 15 Aug 2016

@nntaleb Tolerance (intellectual): Pagan Gr-Roman>Christian(Orth)~Muslim (Shiite)~Secular> Protestant>Christian (Cath)>Atheist>Muslim (Salafi). True? Permalink 9:56 AM – 15 Aug 2016

@nntaleb Looks like my obsession with squid ink is backfiring, trivializing the philter via mainstream commercialization.https://twitter.com/o_liveco/status/765216026820837380   Permalink 9:11 AM – 15 Aug 2016

@nntaleb IYI (Intellectual yet idiot) @billkristol w/peers blew up Iraq & Lybia. No apologies, no learning, no #Skininthegamehttps://twitter.com/BillKristol/status/765154912548294656   Permalink 8:51 AM – 15 Aug 2016

@GhassanDahhan A message from an Algerian woman who was put on a Salafi death-list: No tolerance for the intolerants! (@nntaleb)pic.twitter.com/Zqq2sYZ23l Permalink 2:43 AM – 15 Aug 2016

@nntaleb I just published “Commencement Address, American University in Beirut, 2016”https://medium.com/@nntaled/commencement-address-american-university-in-beirut-2016-a5c6d57984b#.bfhrwes8k   Permalink 6:07 PM – 14 Aug 2016

@nntaleb Friends, does anyone know this book? “On Monotheistic Violence”.pic.twitter.com/qjxNZTQtoA Permalink 4:48 PM – 14 Aug 2016

@nntaleb Much of what we hear on Syria is propaganda by PR firms/Arab journos. For our paper saw War accounts oft unreliable.https://storify.com/MoonofA/how-the-aleppo-hospitals   Permalink 11:59 AM – 14 Aug 2016

@nntaleb Student days.pic.twitter.com/9c4qbugqlJ Permalink 5:30 AM – 14 Aug 2016

@nntaleb Just published “The Most Intolerant Wins: The Dictatorship of the Small Minority”https://medium.com/@nntaled/the-most-intolerant-wins-the-dictatorship-of-the-small-minority-3f1f83ce4e15#.cq32okfgf   Permalink 5:29 AM – 14 Aug 2016

@nntaleb Godel-Popper rule: No freedom to the enemies of freedom No rights to the enemies of rights No democracy to the enemies of democracy Kapish? Permalink 4:01 AM – 14 Aug 2016

@nntaleb Car ahead of me with SQUIDINK license plate. Trying to make contact, get recipes, restaurant names …pic.twitter.com/40UHd6ypEj Permalink 3:41 PM – 13 Aug 2016

@alancliddell @nntaleb Calvin and Muad’Dib:pic.twitter.com/QeutuwekaR Permalink 3:15 PM – 13 Aug 2016

@nntaleb Salafis in France have the nerve to use French freedom of dress to block antiburkini laws.http://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2016/08/13/le-tribunal-administratif-valide-l-arrete-municipal-bannissant-le-burkini-a-cannes_4982397_3224.html   Permalink 3:14 PM – 13 Aug 2016

@nntaleb 2/ In 1818, the Ottomans beheaded Wahabi boss Ibn Saud, forcing him to listen to music (banned by Wahabis). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdullah_bin_Saud   Permalink 2:21 PM – 13 Aug 2016

@nntaleb In every undertaking, the more humans try to be demi-gods, the more they become half-monsters. https://www.facebook.com/nntaleb/posts/10154053650028375   Permalink 11:12 AM – 13 Aug 2016

@nntaleb I am allergic to the term”contrarian”. Assumes a contrary opinion on everything, the opposite of critical thinking. Kapish? @AlanInterface Permalink 10:06 AM – 13 Aug 2016

@nntaleb Pre-1918, 2 centers of Islam: Istanbul v/s Wahabis. West (UK) supported Wahabi revolt. If Erdogan brings back Istanbul, much, much better! Permalink 7:29 AM – 13 Aug 2016

@nntaleb Thou Shalt Not use Publick Service to Collect Speaking Fees. (Skin in the Game)pic.twitter.com/X35gMq2dc0 Permalink 7:05 AM – 13 Aug 2016

@nntaleb Small differences in sigma/errors blow up a 6-sigma by a huge “yuge” amount @D0YouEvenSplash @CutTheKnotMathpic.twitter.com/nPeL4uNMwN Permalink 6:32 AM – 13 Aug 2016

@nntaleb Here shows comparisons of convavity between n-iterated logthms and power functions @5upercrabpic.twitter.com/KBPdshFodr Permalink 5:20 AM – 13 Aug 2016

@nntaleb Even if IQ is measurable, tail IQ would not be beyond the category “very high”. (Variance in extremes, Vega/delta)https://twitter.com/CutTheKnotMath/status/760688453218660352   Permalink 3:24 AM – 13 Aug 2016

@nntaleb Jeff Holman, the incompetent risk manager who went after Antifragile is now w/ @SentientDAI in “intelligent”systems https://arxiv.org/pdf/1401.2524.pdf   Permalink 5:33 PM – 12 Aug 2016

@MarkVirag Wow this is good http://www.wsj.com/articles/how-global-elites-forsake-their-countrymen-1470959258   what @nntaleb would call “no skin in the game”pic.twitter.com/Rrg2kOfLdx Permalink 2:53 PM – 12 Aug 2016

@nntaleb Sunk cost fallacy is only fallacy for specific series of independent bets. @rorysutherland @alexvgeorgiev @TriversRobert @jasonacollins Permalink 5:18 AM – 12 Aug 2016

@nntaleb Boris IV, let’s end the cold war and focus on the Wahabi cancer.https://twitter.com/MaxAbrahms/status/764070804296314880   Permalink 5:16 AM – 12 Aug 2016

@nntaleb These pple, like 538, are not getting that a poll is an *estimator*, hence tracking error pulls it towards 50%. @tomgg @zhaep @neilchriss Permalink 5:04 AM – 12 Aug 2016

@nntaleb Math du jour: nesting functions for iterated logarithms, the perfect concave but unbounded function.pic.twitter.com/ohPgT4Zuzs Permalink 4:56 AM – 12 Aug 2016

@nntaleb Olympics: Greek ideal of ἀρετή, at human scale. Circus: exploitation of deformities, unscaled Current Olympics: exploitation of deformities! Permalink 3:23 AM – 12 Aug 2016

@nntaleb Pierre de Jean Olivi, 13th Century.https://twitter.com/RichardMoorhead/status/764000633431076865   Permalink 2:13 AM – 12 Aug 2016

@nntaleb Block someone logically defective w/low-self esteem & you have an overactive hater for life: cheapest possible advertising money can buy. Permalink 3:46 PM – 11 Aug 2016

@nntaleb I wish someone could spot an error in the paper. Getting worried as presenting it in 3 weeks!https://twitter.com/mikeandallie/status/763790101310738432   Permalink 3:30 PM – 11 Aug 2016

@Trader_Moe Taleb has shown it takes only a tiny intransigent minority to rule larger culture: http://www.fooledbyrandomness.com/minority.pdf  https://twitter.com/WatchSharia/status/763648926889177088   Permalink 12:05 PM – 11 Aug 2016

@nntaleb OK, now <3%. [correcting # of Protestants in France rose in past 2 decades] Permalink 6:25 AM – 11 Aug 2016

@nntaleb La trahison des clercs, vol 2. @Roman_Latkovic Permalink 6:20 AM – 11 Aug 2016

@nntaleb Never imagined that, in 2016, people selfdefined on the “left” would be in favor of repression, cronyism, lobbies, elitism, &… Salafism ! Permalink 4:23 AM – 11 Aug 2016

@nntaleb Overconfidence:”I lost money because of my excessive confidence”,Erasmus citing Theognis, Epicharmus @rorysutherlandpic.twitter.com/c5vjFqVrRH Permalink 3:23 AM – 11 Aug 2016

@nntaleb 2/ most erudite men of all time https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Justus_Scaliger   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Casaubon   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Bayle   4th is Cath https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Daniel_Huet   Permalink 2:30 AM – 11 Aug 2016

@nntaleb FactTduJour: 3 out of the 4 most erudite Frenchmen in history: Casaubon, Scaliger, & Bayle were Protestant. Protestants today<1% of France. Permalink 2:17 AM – 11 Aug 2016

@nntaleb Weightlifting is not for thin people. Overoptimized for weight, hence fragile! @JonathanWaxman1 Permalink 2:13 AM – 11 Aug 2016

@nntaleb Psychological findings that are nonBS have to be #LindyEffect compatible http://www.fooledbyrandomness.com/notebook.htm   @rorysutherlandpic.twitter.com/tXNAqF4Tpe Permalink 1:58 AM – 11 Aug 2016

@nntaleb Saudi approach: hire a PR firm to “improve their image” rather than just evolve Like Monsanto Anyone interested in perception will go bust Permalink 3:59 PM – 10 Aug 2016

@nntaleb I would stop actually later, at the French Moralists (La Rochefoucault…). See Elster for catalogue. @rorysutherland Permalink 3:47 PM – 10 Aug 2016

@nntaleb The bet: if psychological finding is NOT in the classics <Montaigne, it is not real. Cog disson was in Aesop. #LindyEffect @rorysutherland Permalink 3:43 PM – 10 Aug 2016

@nntaleb Notes on one of Elster’s books. He is the MAIN social science thinker; gets Lindy Effect @avermeule @biillybpic.twitter.com/KMYP3kNCz8 Permalink 3:16 PM – 10 Aug 2016

@nntaleb Yemen, unlike Saudi Barbaria & Syrian “rebels”, does not have a PR firm in DC. Journos are told what is important.https://twitter.com/leithfadel/status/763484556167118848   Permalink 2:56 PM – 10 Aug 2016

@nntaleb Indeed, Eastern Aramaic used as “husband.” <= fertility! @alexshd @funtime_bobby @holland_tompic.twitter.com/oPqOa1NYlb Permalink 2:46 PM – 10 Aug 2016

@nntaleb Baal like Adon (=>Adonis) interpreted as “Lord” in Canaanite. Baal Mammon, Baalat Gebala… “Baal shem tov” = Lord w/ gd name @holland_tom Permalink 2:35 PM – 10 Aug 2016

@CCavafy When they saw Patroklos dead —so brave and strong, so young— the horses of Achilles began to weep. Permalink 6:20 AM – 12 Dec 2014

@CCavafy Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey. Without her you would not have set out. She has nothing left to give you now. Permalink 5:30 AM – 6 Dec 2015

@nntaleb The New Fourth Estate is Wikileaks. You don’t mess with the New Fourth Estate. The Old Fourth Estate, no problem.https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/763380671796678656   Permalink 7:27 AM – 10 Aug 2016

@nntaleb The sicarii were into political assassination, not harming children. @iMetaldog @ayhanusa Permalink 7:17 AM – 10 Aug 2016

@nntaleb The ones on Paganism-to-Christianity I REread is Robert Lane Fox https://www.amazon.com/PAGANS-CHRISTIANS-Robin-Lane-Fox/dp/0394554957/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1470834898&sr=1-3&keywords=robin+lane+fox   and Peter Brown’s https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393958035/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1   @tcoe13 Permalink 6:18 AM – 10 Aug 2016

@nntaleb Another account of early paganism-Christianity: https://www.amazon.com/Conflict-Religions-Early-Roman-Empire-ebook/dp/B007K0QKWK/ref=la_B001K8IPNU_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1470828969&sr=1-2#nav-subnav   @tcoe13 Permalink 4:38 AM – 10 Aug 2016

@nntaleb Derivations of how to make and update election forecasts without BS. Trying @WolframResearch new release Mathematicapic.twitter.com/VSLtigZqz3 Permalink 4:27 AM – 10 Aug 2016

@nntaleb I always block people for Sophistry. Simple allergy. Let me know when a devout Orthodox blows up a bus full of infidel children. @ayhanusa Permalink 3:02 AM – 10 Aug 2016

@nntaleb 2/ Salafis preach in schools (incl. in Europe) that Shiites, atheists, pagans, classicists, (often) Christians/Jews are infidel deviants. Permalink 2:37 AM – 10 Aug 2016

@nntaleb It is NOT racism to discriminate against people dressed according to a sect that discriminates against “infidels”, that is, you. Permalink 2:29 AM – 10 Aug 2016

@lhfang Mike Morrell, CIA director who endorsed Hillary, is literally paid by a Hillary consulting firm for weapons makershttp://interc.pt/1mrWtdg   Permalink 6:50 AM – 7 Aug 2016

@nntaleb The “no arbitrage” equality forces the error on binary to ->0 which matchers Brier in discrete 1shots @DrCirillo @foxyforecaster @PTetlock Permalink 1:26 PM – 9 Aug 2016

@nntaleb This is the rigorous proof on way to make time estimates @DrCirillo @foxyforecaster @PTetlockpic.twitter.com/rC3MgfGXDO Permalink 1:23 PM – 9 Aug 2016

@nntaleb Literalism: Few pagans believed in the myths. R L Fox see also Veyne (Skin in the game)pic.twitter.com/HHnJcSkUH4 Permalink 5:15 AM – 9 Aug 2016

@DrCirillo Experts (?) who rely on PIT estimates to forecast things they do not understand, and @nntaleb debunking them. Priceless and funny. Permalink 9:50 AM – 8 Aug 2016

@nntaleb Imbecile, it has nothing to do with race but dressing like members of a violently intolerant subsect: Salafism @artaphernes Permalink 3:18 AM – 9 Aug 2016

@nntaleb There is a .00001 correlation between what I said and this headline. Headline editors …https://twitter.com/yahoofinance/status/762641774707937280   Permalink 2:59 AM – 9 Aug 2016

@nntaleb If you lower false positives, you cause more risks (false negative). Sorry, pol correct pple, but risk is risk.https://twitter.com/zerohedge/status/762925184688988160   Permalink 1:42 AM – 9 Aug 2016

@nntaleb Paris is an energy neutral city.pic.twitter.com/7Vnmnv6xR2 Permalink 1:30 AM – 9 Aug 2016

@nntaleb (cont) Levantine: ana/inté/inté/hu/hi/nihna/into(n)/into(n)/hinné/hinné. Note é @candela3paz @manfromatlan @funtime_bobby @Flyfiddlesticks Permalink 12:51 AM – 9 Aug 2016

@nntaleb The basics: nun used in NW Semitic as in Levantine. @candela3paz @manfromatlan @funtime_bobby @Flyfiddlestickspic.twitter.com/5of2FME8SO Permalink 12:45 AM – 9 Aug 2016

@nntaleb Levantine has the same verb forms as Aramaic http://arshama.classics.ox.ac.uk/downloads/Aramaic%20Skeleton%20Grammar%2004%20(Strong%20Verb).pdf   @candela3paz @funtime_bobby @Flyfiddlesticks Permalink 12:26 AM – 9 Aug 2016

@nntaleb No, Levantine is from older source than Arabic http://www.fooledbyrandomness.com/notebook.htm   @manfromatlan @funtime_bobby @Flyfiddlesticks Permalink 12:05 AM – 9 Aug 2016

@nntaleb Great news: Arabic writing is starting to vanish from Christian areas in Lebanon. A cop had “POLICE” on his shirt.pic.twitter.com/mrYa5w0t3d Permalink 10:37 AM – 8 Aug 2016

@nntaleb You are NOT getting that your Brier is a Norm L2 distance minimizer. Stop tweeting for Baal’s sake. @PTetlock Permalink 8:46 AM – 8 Aug 2016

@nntaleb Completely wrrrong. The norm L-2 distance is MINIMIZED by lowering estimator variance, Hence my method @PTetlockpic.twitter.com/8kKzVn8pCX Permalink 7:50 AM – 8 Aug 2016

@nntaleb Simulations of election processes over 100 days, in Blue is How to Not Update proba a la @FiveThirtyEight. Clueless!pic.twitter.com/zUfnNTnji6 Permalink 7:24 AM – 8 Aug 2016

@nntaleb Paris: a school named after a high school dropout; rebellious poem on the wall. Did they notice the contradiction?pic.twitter.com/dD2sRoHWLR Permalink 3:16 AM – 8 Aug 2016

@nntaleb Jet Lag: Proved that mean rises for ALL power laws when alpha stochastic, discussion w @financequant, @DrCirillopic.twitter.com/M8dGwDmWLh Permalink 1:10 AM – 8 Aug 2016

@nntaleb (cont) More expamplespic.twitter.com/LtUKpQrJ3V Permalink 12:34 AM – 8 Aug 2016

@nntaleb (cont) a tutorial on standard way to look at elections. Updating proportional to square root of time to elections.pic.twitter.com/gbq1pqtkEJ Permalink 12:26 AM – 8 Aug 2016

@nntaleb To remove the verbose psychoBS, this is the rigorous way to deal with elections. @AHDidea @PTetlockpic.twitter.com/0mXzIuw17l Permalink 12:23 AM – 8 Aug 2016

@nntaleb A volatile spot makes the binary⇩↑ .50 (4m expiration) to ↓vol of binary (metaprobability) @Chris_arnade. Kapish?https://twitter.com/Chris_arnade/status/762376801209425920   Permalink 2:06 PM – 7 Aug 2016

@nntaleb The child of jet lag: how uncertainty makes violence worse, supplement to paper w @DrCirillo (with errors…)pic.twitter.com/aPvl6Dvxcp Permalink 12:24 AM – 7 Aug 2016

@nntaleb 4) Quick explanation of mechanism & why @FiveThirtyEight should stop confusing the public. (sorry for mistakes)pic.twitter.com/LghTxDRN3b Permalink 3:12 PM – 6 Aug 2016

@FiveThirtyEight, Salafis Jihadists, Amioun, Piketty, Averroes, Kadisha Valley, The Right | Twitter

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@nntaleb Bingo! Option traders get it! When probabilities are stochastic, they become ~.50. And they don’t move fast!https://twitter.com/VlanciPictures/status/762036480466415617   Permalink 2:25 PM – 6 Aug 2016

@nntaleb 3) More technically, when the variance of the probability is v. high it converges to 50%. Kapish? (metaprobability). Permalink 2:13 PM – 6 Aug 2016

@nntaleb 2/ So @FiveThirtyEight is showing us a textbook case on how to be totally *clueless* about probability yet make a business in it. Permalink 2:11 PM – 6 Aug 2016

@nntaleb 1/@FiveThirtyEight : 55% “probability” for Trump then 20% 10 d later, not realizing their “probability” is too stochastic to be probability. Permalink 2:09 PM – 6 Aug 2016

@nntaleb Cont “This thing we call religion” https://www.facebook.com/nntaleb/posts/10154031983368375  pic.twitter.com/kvFnQKeYdd Permalink 1:29 PM – 6 Aug 2016

@nntaleb (To hide truth is to hide gold) la vérité est cachee au fond du puits Σιγάν την αλήθειαν χρυσόν εστι θάπτεινhttps://twitter.com/zerohedge/status/761981751656849408   Permalink 11:57 AM – 6 Aug 2016

@nntaleb Bon on recommence: Le grand ne rappetisse pas Le petit n’aggrandit pas Permalink 1:05 AM – 6 Aug 2016

@nntaleb Infallible way to catch Salafis Jihadists at a checkpoint: ask them to crack a joke.Salafis, by definition, are devoid of any sense of humor Permalink 11:51 PM – 5 Aug 2016

@nntaleb In French it works well @ArmandDAngour : Le grand ne rappetit pas Le petit n’aggrandit pas Permalink 3:26 PM – 5 Aug 2016

@nntaleb The small will never make you feel great; the great will never make you fee small. ( الزغير ما بكبٌر والكبير ما بزغٌر) Better translation Permalink 3:09 PM – 5 Aug 2016

@nntaleb The small can’t see greatness; the great doesn’t know smallness. ( الزغير ما بكبٌر والكبير ما بزغٌر)https://twitter.com/nntaleb/status/761679663001468929   Permalink 3:02 PM – 5 Aug 2016

@nntaleb Ez z’3ir ma bi kabber w l’kbir ma mi za’3’3er. Permalink 2:45 PM – 5 Aug 2016

@nntaleb To assume that academic economists are “experts” on anything requires total empirical blindness. @yoramdw @JustinWolfers Permalink 8:28 AM – 5 Aug 2016

@nntaleb (Skin in the Game) Permalink 8:23 AM – 5 Aug 2016

@nntaleb This IYI (Intellectual yet Idiot) doesn’t realize absence of academic economists is a very positive thing.#realworldhttps://twitter.com/JustinWolfers/status/761536433756798976   Permalink 8:22 AM – 5 Aug 2016

@nntaleb A pilgrimage to my great-gr-gr-gr-gr-grandfather’s house in Amiounpic.twitter.com/sD9XZkOuYD Permalink 7:01 AM – 5 Aug 2016

@nntaleb Proper statistical causation: Take a cohort of readers & PREVENT some randomly selected from reading. Kapish? @amsterdamtrader @Silva Permalink 5:36 AM – 5 Aug 2016

@nntaleb Rohan, the NYT idiots (IYI) got it backward. Those who live longer necessarily have a longer functioning intellectual/visual ability @Silva Permalink 5:15 AM – 5 Aug 2016

@nntaleb In distributed environments: Militias >>armies, commandos >>tanks Groups(Hayekian) >>Soviet & farmers >> Monsanto!https://twitter.com/MKM_Abdul/status/761409231304077312   Permalink 3:10 AM – 5 Aug 2016

@nntaleb As to the Gini, fugedaboudit. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/50282823/GINI-1.pdf   @NessimAitKacimi Permalink 3:03 PM – 4 Aug 2016

@nntaleb Piketty more than challenged: in addition his measure of inequality is flawed @NessimAitKacimipic.twitter.com/Kw2yuN09CH Permalink 2:55 PM – 4 Aug 2016

@nntaleb The problem w Mainstream Media: unlike book authors, journos are mostly worried about the opinions of other journos, not those of readers. Permalink 2:20 AM – 4 Aug 2016

@G_Exercitus How can @zerohedge be more professional than MSM? @joshua_landis @MaxAbrahms @nntalebhttps://twitter.com/zerohedge/status/761079273704665089   Permalink 1:03 AM – 4 Aug 2016

@nntaleb Factdujour: Averroes (IbnRushd) was unpublished in Arabic bef 1859, while 100s of eds in Latin! [The grrrreat Renan]pic.twitter.com/MVyHxN1hXB Permalink 4:37 PM – 3 Aug 2016

@nntaleb IYI don’t get techné-epistemé: scientist making statements abt practical matters is not like a plumber on plumbing.https://twitter.com/AcademicsSay/status/760969384106029057   Permalink 3:46 PM – 3 Aug 2016

@nntaleb Mala grammatica non vitiat chartam @dottorpax Permalink 3:37 PM – 3 Aug 2016

@nntaleb If I ran for office, I’d avoid public statements that don’t entail personal risks in making them. Permalink 3:04 PM – 3 Aug 2016

@nntaleb Max knows his stuff.https://twitter.com/maxabrahms/status/760850229029539840   Permalink 10:19 AM – 3 Aug 2016

@nntaleb Kadisha Valley near Ehden, 19 km from Amioun (and 20 degrees F cooler).pic.twitter.com/i99s0M4PaC Permalink 7:05 AM – 3 Aug 2016

@nntaleb We don’t know what we talk about when we say “Religion”. Salafis (& most atheists) take religion literally.pic.twitter.com/I1ZhUT3ye6 Permalink 8:26 AM – 2 Aug 2016

@nntaleb Indians left to starve in Saudi Barbaria.https://twitter.com/assaadrazzouk/status/760130259119443968   Permalink 10:26 AM – 1 Aug 2016

@nntaleb 2) So have some imagination and do not rule out a two-way mess in Europe.https://twitter.com/nntaleb/status/760139675713634304   Permalink 8:48 AM – 1 Aug 2016

@nntaleb As a child,I never imagined that Sunni girls wd trade miniskirts for hijab & boys would blow themselves up to get on GoogleNews. #BlackSwan Permalink 8:46 AM – 1 Aug 2016

@lukasnaugle “You can’t have 1) voting rights, 2) social media, and 3) patronizing elite at once…” @nntaleb Permalink 5:22 AM – 1 Aug 2016

@nntaleb My prediction, particularly for Europe. Eventually, violence never stays 1-way. (@zerohedge )pic.twitter.com/ELbVMmQrIb Permalink 6:36 PM – 31 Jul 2016

@nntaleb Finally, results for the preasymptotics of semi-fat tailed & fat tailed distributions for @DrCirillo’s conferencepic.twitter.com/b7POA4952o Permalink 4:39 PM – 31 Jul 2016

@nntaleb Enough mass to do a …coup in Germany?https://twitter.com/MilenaRodban/status/759879379220475904   Permalink 3:48 PM – 31 Jul 2016

@joshua_landis As the Saudis Covered Up Abuses in Yemen, America Stood Byhttp://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/07/saudi-arabia-yemen-russia-syria-foreign-policy-united-nations-blackmail-214124   Permalink 12:58 PM – 31 Jul 2016

@nntaleb Localismhttps://twitter.com/yaneerbaryam/status/759779327428923392   Permalink 12:11 PM – 31 Jul 2016

@ideallyspace @nntalebpic.twitter.com/ISqpg2kgN6 Permalink 3:43 AM – 31 Jul 2016

@nntaleb The Right wants one $ one vote. The IYI (intellectual yet idiot) Left wants one degree one vote. The rest of us want one person one vote. Permalink 1:46 PM – 30 Jul 2016

‘My Friend’, Turkey, STALIN, GMOs, Arguing, Scale Dependent Properties, SKIN IN THE GAME | Facebook

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Nothing can be both boring and truly important. 7/29/16

To perpetuate a lie, you must whisper it, not shout it. 7/27/16

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The expression “my friend”: for a name dropper, it is anyone important; for a politician, anyone who does not vote against him/her; for regular people, a friend; in the mob, “a friend of ours” is another mafia member.

For me it is anyone I run into at a party and can’t remember the first name. 7/27/16

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For those of you on a hot summer day want to stroll on a beach, this is the way to do it.

It takes some training; rehearse in the privacy of your living room before doing it in public.

(Aldo Maccione, Jacques Brel, etc…)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTm0X93l8vk

L’Aventure c’est l’Aventure (1972) – Claude Lelouch – Beach Scene
L’aventure c’est l’aventure is a 1972 French film directed by Claude Lelouch. It stars Lino Ventura, Jacques Brel, Aldo Maccione and Johnny Hallyday. 7/24/16

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Turkey is, after 100 years, a complete failure of top-down secularization. So are Iraq and Syria. You keep pushing religion under the rug, via bureaucrats; it comes back with a vengeance.

Iran has, somewhat, the opposite situation. 7/21/16

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STALIN AND THE FALSE NEGATIVE

An illustration of the notion of minimal type 2 error (no false negative): At the Congress of 1934, for the critical confidence ballot, a minority of the 1288 delegates (perhaps a quarter) voted against Stalin.

Stalin ended up trying to eliminating, during the great purge, not just those who were presumed to have voted against him, but all the delegates who were present. 7/20/16

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This picture is worth an indefinite amount of words.

It shows why GMOs are *not* traditional breeding. Few people trained traditionally get complex systems (i.e. those with interractions). But there is a growing number of young people who “get it”, particularly when familiar with P/NP in computer science.

Finally I looked at Monsanto’s financials and it shows GMOs are contracting; as a “technology” GMs are dying and no complicated technology survives unless it is multiplicative. Meanwhile organic is growing rapidly.

The PP page is here
http://www.fooledbyrandomness.com/PrecautionaryPrinciple.ht…
—
Rahul Gotswani commented on the drawing by Joe Norman for our paper.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb's photo.7/14/16

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Never argue with people in private (you will not convince them); argue in public to convince others. 7/12/16

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Another explanation of Scale Dependent Properties:

Some may believe that *armies create wars* but nobody sane believes that *police create robberies*. 7/7/16

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SKIN IN THE GAME
Since more and more of academia is becoming a ritualistic publishing* game that maps less and less to real research, we should force people who want to do “research” to first have a Real World day job, or at least spend 10 years as: lens maker, patent clerc, mafia operator, professional gambler, postman, prison guard, medical doctor, uber driver, militia member, social security clerc, trial lawyer, farmer, restaurant chef, high volume waiter, firefighter (my favorite), lighthouse keeper, etc., while they are doing their initial research.

It is a filtering, BS expurgating mechanism.

I for my part spent the first 21 years in a full-time highly demanding extremely stressful job while studying, researching, and writing my first 3 books at night, and it lowered (in fact, eliminated) my tolerance for fake research.

*I borrow from Saifedean Ammous the apt description “ritualistic game”. 7/6/16

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Real World Risk Institute LLC Workshop Announcement. Dear friends, we have:

1) Changed location to a huge room rented from… the Masonic Lodge in NYC, on 23rd St between 5th and 6th Ave.

2) Changed the date of RWRI 3 to October 3-7 2016

3) Changed the non-Antifragile part of the program to add Information, Cybersecurity, Big Data, Complexity (in place of technical finance)

4) Added more scholarship slots.

http://realworldrisk.com

Idea Makers: Personal Perspectives on the Lives & Ideas of Some Notable People | Stephen Wolfram

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5.0 out of 5 starsThe Real Thing, a Jewel., July 28, 2016
This review is from: Idea Makers: Personal Perspectives on the Lives & Ideas of Some Notable People (Hardcover)
The general public is usually supplied by books on mathematical scientists written by “science communicators” and other outside observers–the worst by far being the academic historians of science. Their books are like reviews of comparative squid ink recipes written by anorexics, or descriptions of the Loire Valley by visually impaired travel writers. They are well written, which masks the BS. The descriptions focus on “interesting” traits of the personalities; scientists are discussed as if they were partaking of spectator sports. This fellow “was the best…”, this fellow “was the first to…”, “Einstein made a big blunder”, etc.
This book, “Idea Makers”, is written from an insider. It is the real thing on several accounts.
Primo, Wolfram deserves to be in the book as an “idea maker”, in his own right.
Secondo, Wolfram is the developer of a new way to do (useful) mathematics, an entirely new method, which allows us to tinker with mathematics, something that is an anathema to purists. Thus he depicts Ramanujan, not with the usual mathematical prism of the theorem crowds, but as someone who, starting with intuitions, does experiments till a mathematical identity feels right. As an eyewitness, I spent almost all my career in quant finance and probability toying with Mathematica (Stephen Wolfram’s invention), and saw it accumulate special functions and tools. Mathematica allowed me to be a car mechanic who looked under the hood; such experience makes us look at the pompous theoretician as a cook would a nerdy chemist. The book is about this refreshing perspective: theorems were to Ramanujan a thing used by European mathematicians to convince other European mathematicians.
Terso, Wolfram is fair. He shows a fair –even adulatory– portrait of Mandelbrot, in spite of attacks by the latter. Indeed, if Mandelbrot hated someone, the person has to be good and threatening. Otherwise he would not bother mentioning him.
Finally, many of the people involved are actually known either personally (Feynman, Mandelbrot, Minsky), or like Boole, Ramanujan, Godel, and Lebnitz, “connect” to the author.
HatTip to Dave Lull