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The title might suggest a poorly ranty written essay, but I was actually positively surprised and thought it was a very interesting read. I didn't know the aut

The title might suggest a poorly ranty written essay, but I was actually positively surprised and thought it was a very interesting read. I didn't know the author before, but looked him up and he seems to be a well known author of some very influential literature: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nassim_Nicholas_Taleb https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nassim_Nicholas_Taleb Hope that motivates hackers here to give this blog post a read.

lqet 7y ago
I am surprised you have never heard of Taleb before. He is quite controversial, but often deeply original and almost never boring. You should read "Antifragile: Things that Gain from Disorder" which imho is his best book. "Black Swan" is more well-known, but I was a slightly disappointed by it.
- mieseratte 7y ago
  > I am surprised you have never heard of Taleb before. He's just one of today's "Lucky 10.000"[0] [0] - https://xkcd.com/1053/ https://xkcd.com/1053/
- dustinmoris 7y ago
  > I am surprised you have never heard of Taleb before. He is quite controversial, but often deeply original and almost never boring. Yeah, probably fault due to my own ignorance/bubble in which I live. But I like reading controversial but cleverly put together essays. I like it when someone challenges my own views with a well thought through argument, because that is the best way to either learn something new, or at least learn to understand other people better. So either way I feel like I always walk away as a winner whether I agree or disagree in the end. Thanks for the recommendation!
  - coldtea 7y ago
    >But I like reading controversial but cleverly put together essays. I like it when someone challenges my own views with a well thought through argument, Try Chesterton then. A little old but still relevant. E.g. could try Heretics.
    - kthejoker2 7y ago
      Or Unpopular Essays by Bertrand Russell. Or almost anything by Orwell; his crankiness knows no limits.
- huffmsa 7y ago
  Seinfeld effect RE: Black swan. The ideas have become pretty common place (though most uses of the phrase in the mainstream are incorrect) so they don't seem novel ~15 years later. And his writing has improved. Skin in the Game is the example heavy companion/ follow up to the more technical antifragile.
- amelius 7y ago
  Black Swan was just a simple analogy that the author decided to write an entire book about.
wsxcde 7y ago
He has written some interesting stuff. In particular, I recommend his book the Black Swan -- it is a very nice description of why there are often structural incentives to disregard unlikely/low-probability events. But he's also definitely over the hill as a thinker. About the only notable thing he's done in the last few years has been sustaining a long-running and personal feud with Nate Silver (of 538) about who among them better understands probability.
- muro 7y ago
  Skin in the game is more recent.
  - muro 7y ago
    Actually, skin in the game explains his feud with Nate Silver.
thermonot 7y ago
Then definately check his twitter, he is quite a figure: https://twitter.com/nntaleb https://twitter.com/nntaleb
icebraining 7y ago
I recommend his interviews on Econtalk: https://www.econlib.org/econtalk-by-featured-guest-and-letter/?selected_letter=T#NassimNicholasTaleb https://www.econlib.org/econtalk-by-featured-guest-and-lette... He has a really good rapport with the host (Russ Roberts) and it seems to tamper down his tendency to rant against the stupidity of others.

lqet 7y ago

I am surprised you have never heard of Taleb before. He is quite controversial, but often deeply original and almost never boring. You should read "Antifragile: Things that Gain from Disorder" which imho is his best book. "Black Swan" is more well-known, but I was a slightly disappointed by it.

mieseratte 7y ago
> I am surprised you have never heard of Taleb before. He's just one of today's "Lucky 10.000"[0] [0] - https://xkcd.com/1053/ https://xkcd.com/1053/
dustinmoris 7y ago
> I am surprised you have never heard of Taleb before. He is quite controversial, but often deeply original and almost never boring. Yeah, probably fault due to my own ignorance/bubble in which I live. But I like reading controversial but cleverly put together essays. I like it when someone challenges my own views with a well thought through argument, because that is the best way to either learn something new, or at least learn to understand other people better. So either way I feel like I always walk away as a winner whether I agree or disagree in the end. Thanks for the recommendation!
- coldtea 7y ago
  >But I like reading controversial but cleverly put together essays. I like it when someone challenges my own views with a well thought through argument, Try Chesterton then. A little old but still relevant. E.g. could try Heretics.
  - kthejoker2 7y ago
    Or Unpopular Essays by Bertrand Russell. Or almost anything by Orwell; his crankiness knows no limits.
huffmsa 7y ago
Seinfeld effect RE: Black swan. The ideas have become pretty common place (though most uses of the phrase in the mainstream are incorrect) so they don't seem novel ~15 years later. And his writing has improved. Skin in the Game is the example heavy companion/ follow up to the more technical antifragile.
amelius 7y ago
Black Swan was just a simple analogy that the author decided to write an entire book about.

wsxcde 7y ago

He has written some interesting stuff. In particular, I recommend his book the Black Swan -- it is a very nice description of why there are often structural incentives to disregard unlikely/low-probability events. But he's also definitely over the hill as a thinker. About the only notable thing he's done in the last few years has been sustaining a long-running and personal feud with Nate Silver (of 538) about who among them better understands probability.

muro 7y ago
Skin in the game is more recent.
- muro 7y ago
  Actually, skin in the game explains his feud with Nate Silver.

thermonot 7y ago

Then definately check his twitter, he is quite a figure: https://twitter.com/nntaleb https://twitter.com/nntaleb

icebraining 7y ago

I recommend his interviews on Econtalk: https://www.econlib.org/econtalk-by-featured-guest-and-letter/?selected_letter=T#NassimNicholasTaleb https://www.econlib.org/econtalk-by-featured-guest-and-lette... He has a really good rapport with the host (Russ Roberts) and it seems to tamper down his tendency to rant against the stupidity of others.