Nassim Nicholas Taleb Quotes - Page 14

The bonus for bankers fragilizes the system. Someone has the upside at the expense of others.

If you are in banking and lending, surprise outcomes are likely to be negative for you.

Social science means inventing a certain brand of human we can understand.

Capitalism is about adventurers who get harmed by their mistakes, not people who harm others with their mistakes.

For many people, commuting is the worst part of the day, and policies that can make commuting shorter and more convenient would be a straightforward way to reduce minor but widespread suffering.

Academia is to knowledge what prostitution is to love; close enough on the surface but, to the non-sucker, not exactly the same thing.

All of technology, really, is about maximizing free options.

When you write, you don't have the social constraints of having people in front of you, so you talk about abstract matters.

People who forecast simply because "that's my job," knowing pretty well that their forecast is ineffectual, are not what I would call ethical. What they do is no different from repeating lies simply because "it's my job."

The American people will eventually get hurt by this accumulated deficit. That's the problem. We have too much deficit. We have to find a solution.

Please, don’t drive a school bus blindfolded.

Luck is the grand equalizer.

He who has never sinned is less reliable than he who has only sinned once.

But they never notice the following inconsistency: this so-called worst-case event, when it happened, exceeded the worst case at the time.

I no longer care about the financial system. I gave them my roadmap. OK? Thanks, bye. I've no idea what's going on. I'm disconnected. I'm totally disengaged.

I drive a hybrid, moving into an electric car. I only drink tap water, never consume food that's travelled.

I don't know anyone on Wall Street who goes to work every day thinking of anything but how to increase their bonus.