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Quotes from Nassim Taleb regarding economists: An economist is a mixture of 1) a businessman without common sense, 2) a physicist without brain, and 3) a specu

by 21 9y ago

Quotes from Nassim Taleb regarding economists: An economist is a mixture of 1) a businessman without common sense, 2) a physicist without brain, and 3) a speculator without balls. Those with brains no balls become mathematicians, those with balls no brains join the mafia, those w no balls no brains become economists. To have a great day: 1) Smile at a stranger, 2) Surprise someone by saying something unexpectedly nice, 3) Give some genuine attention to an elderly, 4) Invite someone who doesn't have many friends for coffee, 5) Humiliate an economist, publicly, or create deep anxiety inside a Harvard professor. A trader listened to the firm's "chief" economist's predictions about gold, then lost a bundle. The trader was asked to leave the firm. He then angrily asked him boss who was firing him: "Why do you fire me alone not the economist? He is too responsible for the loss." The Boss: "You idiot, we are not firing you for losing money; we are firing you for listening to the economist." Discussing growth without concern for fragility: like studying construction without thinking of collapses. Think like engineer not economist. Success in all endeavors is requires absence of specific qualities. 1) To succeed in crime requires absence of empathy, 2) To succeed in banking you need absence of shame at hiding risks, 3) To succeed in school requires absence of common sense, 4) To succeed in economics requires absence of understanding of probability, risk, or 2nd order effects and about anything, 5) To succeed in journalism requires inability to think about matters that have an infinitesimal small chance of being relevant next January, ...6) But to succeed in life requires a total inability to do anything that makes you uncomfortable when you look at yourself in the mirror. [On his greatest disappointment]: That I am unable to destroy the economics establishment, the press. Friends, I wonder if someone has computed how much would be saved if we shut down economics and political science departments in universities. Those who need to research these subjects can do so on their private time. Being nice to the wicked (or economist) is equivalent to being nasty with the virtuous.

arkj 9y ago
I do not think the whole of economics is a waste. But your post made me lol. May be its not a 'science' subject as physics or engineering. In my part of the world it is still listed an arts subject.
smhcf8 9y ago
It still amazes me that people unironically cite these Taleb quotes without addressing how plainly neurotic these comments are. Does this increase or decrease your prior belief in his actual ability to carefully read, and then entirely dismiss, an economics academic literature that involves nearly ten thousand active young academics with backgrounds from all over the world, an undergraduate education that ranges from mathematics to physics to philosophy, and markedly diverse political beliefs, and who mostly work on topics that have nothing to do with financial math? Or does it perhaps tell you that this top b-school PhD graduate, who 1. works on similar financial-math topics as the people he viciously smear in the media 2. publishes in the same journals that econ/finance academics publish in 3. had key results inspired or derived from previous economists including Daniel Ellsberg (who, by the way, is a national hero) 4, and was repeatedly hired by top econ/finance departments, but was never able to keep the same appointment for more than a few years perhaps has deep-seated personal, psychopathic issues that prevent him from simply getting along with other academics in his own discipline, and that the academic world wasn't stacked against him and his insights? and perhaps his actual academic analysis don't give you the sweeping indictment of his fellow academics that he'd have you believe in his bitter tirades? and maybe you shouldn't take him that seriously when he periodically goes into his online rants and show a vicious tendency to smear and destroy any individual that's responsible for a perceived slight on him?

by 21 9y ago

arkj 9y ago

I do not think the whole of economics is a waste. But your post made me lol. May be its not a 'science' subject as physics or engineering. In my part of the world it is still listed an arts subject.

smhcf8 9y ago

It still amazes me that people unironically cite these Taleb quotes without addressing how plainly neurotic these comments are. Does this increase or decrease your prior belief in his actual ability to carefully read, and then entirely dismiss, an economics academic literature that involves nearly ten thousand active young academics with backgrounds from all over the world, an undergraduate education that ranges from mathematics to physics to philosophy, and markedly diverse political beliefs, and who mostly work on topics that have nothing to do with financial math? Or does it perhaps tell you that this top b-school PhD graduate, who 1. works on similar financial-math topics as the people he viciously smear in the media 2. publishes in the same journals that econ/finance academics publish in 3. had key results inspired or derived from previous economists including Daniel Ellsberg (who, by the way, is a national hero) 4, and was repeatedly hired by top econ/finance departments, but was never able to keep the same appointment for more than a few years perhaps has deep-seated personal, psychopathic issues that prevent him from simply getting along with other academics in his own discipline, and that the academic world wasn't stacked against him and his insights? and perhaps his actual academic analysis don't give you the sweeping indictment of his fellow academics that he'd have you believe in his bitter tirades? and maybe you shouldn't take him that seriously when he periodically goes into his online rants and show a vicious tendency to smear and destroy any individual that's responsible for a perceived slight on him?