I think Taleb likes to think of himself as a scholar so smart that has destroyed mainstream scholarship and his contributions are not being recognized by the le

I think Taleb likes to think of himself as a scholar so smart that has destroyed mainstream scholarship and his contributions are not being recognized by the lesser scholars. But he's smart enough to recognize that he's just not that deep of a thinker or has anything particularly insightful to say (outside of some financial modeling topics perhaps) so he uses all that pedantic prose and name dropping to cover for it. He's certainly cashing on it so it's not like he's going to stop but I can't shake the feeling that he knows, is bitter and that shows in his writing.