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I've been following Taleb for years. I generally like abrasive style and his calling out of intellectual class. But some of his personal attacks on Bitcoin supp
by bko 5y ago
I've been following Taleb for years. I generally like abrasive style and his calling out of intellectual class. But some of his personal attacks on Bitcoin supporters is a little over the top.
From Twitter:
> [Peter McCormack] Would you discuss your findings in this paper with me. I’d like to explain to you why I think you are wrong. I believe this paper is not objective, rather written from a position of wanting to confirm your recent anti-Bitcoin position.
> [Taleb] Listen, fucking idiot. Go write your own rebuttal. The only good thing your amoeba brain is good at is in harassing mobs, intimidating innocent people who have a different opinion, pushing them to close their twitter accts. So stay quiet on my thread and keep your mouth shut.
I get that he doesn't want to engage in someone on a non-technical level or dumb down his argument, but these exchanges are off-putting. I haven't seem him express such consistent direct vitriol to others he considers fraudsters (central bankers, economists, pop-pyschology authors, journalists, etc). It's just weird that he's been going on a months long rage against people that invest their own money in something they believe in.
His paper might address this, but it seems like support for crypto to be a rather innocuous interest.
[0] https://twitter.com/PeterMcCormack/status/1406734410674737159 https://twitter.com/PeterMcCormack/status/140673441067473715...
- johnnycerberus 5y agoPeter McCormack could start by providing evidence for why the paper was wrong, instead was trying to bait Taleb into a Twitter thread that would have done no good to anyone. Good thing for Taleb that he didn't engage.
- bko 5y agoHe did engage by calling him a "fucking idiot"
- frankbreetz 5y ago>>I generally like abrasive style and his calling out of intellectual class.
- prepend 5y agoIt’s hard to say “shut the fuck up” and have it be effective. I think such a statement seems to disengage and also discourage future similar potential engagements.
- byzantinegene 5y agotwitter is definitely not the right medium for discussion of an academic paper, Taleb was right in calling him a fucking idiot