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Nassim Nicholas Taleb: "The Intellectual yet Idiot" Class

12 points by Jerry2 10y ago

HillaryBriss 10y ago
Interesting characterization of the US voter base: > While rich people believe in one tax dollar one vote, more humanistic ones in one man one vote, Monsanto in one lobbyist one vote, the IYI [Intellectual Yet Idiot] believes in one Ivy League degree one-vote ...
andriesm 10y ago
10 times more government as a percentage of GDP compared to a century ago. Wow. We certainly are having a lot of government in our lives and livelihood.
rspeer 10y ago
This guy is peeved about politics and he has a new class of people he wants to blame for it. His description of this class of people is odd and improbable: some sort of foppish Englishmen who have contrived a way to vote for Hillary Clinton. Now, there are some things he said that are more generally applicable. Particularly: "Beware the semi-erudite who thinks he is an erudite." I'm pretty sure he just put himself in this class, no matter how hard he tries to deadlift his way out of it.
- giardini 10y ago
  rspeer: "His description of this class of people is odd and improbable: some sort of foppish Englishmen" You aren't possibly referring to (from the article) "... that class of paternalistic semi-intellectual experts with some Ivy league, Oxford-Cambridge, or similar label-driven education who are telling the rest of us 1) what to do, 2) what to eat, 3) how to speak, 4) how to think… and 5) who to vote for." , are you?
  - rspeer 10y ago
    There have been much more coherent articles written on that phenomenon. Taleb's description is like a reverse horoscope: a bunch of vague generalities and irrelevant details that you're not supposed to identify with. You're supposed to say "oh phew, that's not me", and maybe shift a little bit toward Taleb's worldview to make sure you're not the caricature he described. In the end, it doesn't convey anything. It's just a list of peeves and smarmy name-dropping. This guy is a bestselling author, but if this article is what comes out of his head unfiltered, he clearly benefits from editing.

12 points by Jerry2 10y ago

Interesting characterization of the US voter base: > While rich people believe in one tax dollar one vote, more humanistic ones in one man one vote, Monsanto in one lobbyist one vote, the IYI [Intellectual Yet Idiot] believes in one Ivy League degree one-vote ...

andriesm 10y ago

10 times more government as a percentage of GDP compared to a century ago. Wow. We certainly are having a lot of government in our lives and livelihood.

rspeer 10y ago

This guy is peeved about politics and he has a new class of people he wants to blame for it. His description of this class of people is odd and improbable: some sort of foppish Englishmen who have contrived a way to vote for Hillary Clinton. Now, there are some things he said that are more generally applicable. Particularly: "Beware the semi-erudite who thinks he is an erudite." I'm pretty sure he just put himself in this class, no matter how hard he tries to deadlift his way out of it.

giardini 10y ago
rspeer: "His description of this class of people is odd and improbable: some sort of foppish Englishmen" You aren't possibly referring to (from the article) "... that class of paternalistic semi-intellectual experts with some Ivy league, Oxford-Cambridge, or similar label-driven education who are telling the rest of us 1) what to do, 2) what to eat, 3) how to speak, 4) how to think… and 5) who to vote for." , are you?
- rspeer 10y ago
  There have been much more coherent articles written on that phenomenon. Taleb's description is like a reverse horoscope: a bunch of vague generalities and irrelevant details that you're not supposed to identify with. You're supposed to say "oh phew, that's not me", and maybe shift a little bit toward Taleb's worldview to make sure you're not the caricature he described. In the end, it doesn't convey anything. It's just a list of peeves and smarmy name-dropping. This guy is a bestselling author, but if this article is what comes out of his head unfiltered, he clearly benefits from editing.