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Someone needs to tell Taleb there is a field called Social Psychology where everything he is raving about is formally studied under the heading of Conformism or
by hos234 7y ago
Someone needs to tell Taleb there is a field called Social Psychology where everything he is raving about is formally studied under the heading of Conformism or Group Dynamics.
For those actually interested in this stuff, beyond Taleb's stand-up routines, look up the work of Kurt Lewin, Stanley Milgram, Solomon Asch, Phil Zambrado or Mel Slater. It's much more thought provoking.
These are very interesting times, because we finally have tons of data on how groups form, grow, break, merge etc And the ongoing merger of social psychology, political science, network theory as seen in the emergence of computational social science depts, doesn't just tell us how things work, but how to change and regulate the behavior and actions of groups. Early days but full of promise.
- abiro 7y agoHe writes pop science here in what is an entertaining style for many. (He does reference Serge Galam in his book, one of the fathers of modern sociophysics.)
- dagw 7y agoSomeone needs to tell Taleb there is a field called Social Psychology where everything he is raving about is formally studied He's a smart guy, so he's no doubt fully aware of all the people you mention. He's also equally aware that he sells more books than all those people combined by probably a couple of order of magnitude.
- chiefalchemist 7y agoAware? Sure. But I think the comment is directed at a lack of understanding. That is: Understanding > Knowledge Taleb hammer is economists. All his nails are defined by that hammer. Yes, it's one way of trying to manage thoughts about the __complex__ world around us. But it's not complete. It doesn't always work. That hammer has blindspots. You'd think Taleb would know this as well. But his hammer doesn't change. The least he can do, as every good argument should, is to mention the blindspots and how others might have insights. He leaves that out of the picture. Given Taleb's theory...ironic, huh?
- dagw 7y agoThere are two "Nassim Taleb's" out in the world. Taleb the academic and Taleb the pop-culture author and their writing styles are completely different. The former actually tries to make a coherent argument while the latter is basically competing with Gladwell to sell as many books as possible and gives zero fucks that not all his arguments stand up to scrutiny. Perhaps that is Taleb's attempt at being Antifragile.
- chiefalchemist 7y ago> " gives zero fucks that not all his arguments stand up to scrutiny." Gives zero fucks his arguments are not arguments at all. What a shame. Yeah Gladwell. Comes up with a theory, then cherry-picks for studies that support it, but never mentions anything that doesn't.
- andreilys 7y agoSeems like a pretty wide sweeping generalization to say his arguments are not arguments at all. What is your specific bone to pick with Taleb?
- chiefalchemist 7y agoI was commenting on the comment, and rephrasing a bit for accuracy. That is, if you're being selective about the facts you present and you're not concerned about how solid your position is as a result, then you're not making an argument. Your intellectual laziness should not be rewarded. Ultimately, you're just spewing bullshit, and in many cases just trying to use to reputation as a (cheap) substitute for truth and fact. Again, such intellectual laziness should not be rewarded. I'm not sure why we're grown so tolerant and accepting of what so often amounts to raw bullshit.
- winchling 7y agoIf you think Taleb's wrong, explain how!
- bryanrasmussen 7y agoI get the feeling you don't think he is especially bright, which I must admit I didn't either, on the other hand if I thought he had all these insights on his own and did not have books to crib it from I would have to up my estimation.