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I used to be impressed by Taleb (when I was younger and more clueless) but having read two of his books and many articles I find the negativity tiresome and pet

by lmg643 14y ago

I used to be impressed by Taleb (when I was younger and more clueless) but having read two of his books and many articles I find the negativity tiresome and petulant, and his finance theories questionable. Eric Falkenstein: "Another key to understanding Taleb is that he has a French post-modern tendency to write to impress rather than explain. He provides hundreds of loosely related anecdotes, reminding me of the Talmud quote that 'when a debater’s point is not impressive, he brings forth many arguments.' I actually agree with a lot of Taleb, such as the intractability of risk because it is endogenous, and I think he's vaguely libertarian, but he says so many inconsistent things that doesn't mean much (when he's right it's probably a good example of the Gettier problem)." Gettier problem = whether being right by accident still counts as being right. http://falkenblog.blogspot.com/2012/11/taleb-mishandles-fragility.html http://falkenblog.blogspot.com/2012/11/taleb-mishandles-frag...

fusiongyro 14y ago
I continue to be impressed by Taleb, but I will read the linked blog article. I don't read him for the financial advice per se so much as for enjoyably-written reminders to avoid the fundamental attribution error and pay attention to the expected value as well as the extremes when weighing probabilistic outcomes. I wouldn't characterize him as negative—he strikes me as about as positive as you can get with an acute awareness of human ignorance as an incurable situation that leads to a great deal of needless suffering. A lot of the anti-Taleb angst seems to derive from him not delivering facts in a sufficiently rigorous and drab manner, but I don't think there's anything wrong with entertaining non-fiction.
fusiongyro 14y ago
That was a great article. I wish I understood more of the math. It is making me question my attitude towards Taleb and his work, which has been pretty fawning up until now.

by lmg643 14y ago

fusiongyro 14y ago

I continue to be impressed by Taleb, but I will read the linked blog article. I don't read him for the financial advice per se so much as for enjoyably-written reminders to avoid the fundamental attribution error and pay attention to the expected value as well as the extremes when weighing probabilistic outcomes. I wouldn't characterize him as negative—he strikes me as about as positive as you can get with an acute awareness of human ignorance as an incurable situation that leads to a great deal of needless suffering. A lot of the anti-Taleb angst seems to derive from him not delivering facts in a sufficiently rigorous and drab manner, but I don't think there's anything wrong with entertaining non-fiction.

fusiongyro 14y ago

That was a great article. I wish I understood more of the math. It is making me question my attitude towards Taleb and his work, which has been pretty fawning up until now.