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I especially like how Orwell draws a contrived but all too true comparison between the following passages. I returned and saw under the sun, that the race is

I especially like how Orwell draws a contrived but all too true comparison between the following passages. I returned and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all. -- passage from Ecclesiastes vs. Objective considerations of contemporary phenomena compels the conclusion that success or failure in competitive activities exhibits no tendency to be commensurate with innate capacity, but that a considerable element of the unpredictable must invariably be taken into account. -- modern translation I could definitely imagine reading the latter in an op-ed.

imbnwa 5y ago
The latter I think is also what Taleb was referring to when, in the context of criticizing IQ, he remarked that most of Europe was a backwater for most of history
thazework 5y ago
The passage from Ecclesiastes is itself a translation of course, and though it is a very old translation it's not particularly good. 'I returned and saw under the sun' - where exactly is the speaker supposed to have returned from? What is being conveyed, poorly, is that the speaker is having a moment of clarity. https://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt3109.htm https://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt3109.htm
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mscharrer 5y ago
Unlike the former, I could also imagine the latter being produced by a Markov chain.