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Nassim Taleb said this about the NYT list: "There is close to ZERO probability that a "Notable book" in the NYT will be discussed in 5-20 years. Look at 1990-20
by davidiach 12y ago
Nassim Taleb said this about the NYT list: "There is close to ZERO probability that a "Notable book" in the NYT will be discussed in 5-20 years. Look at 1990-2009 lists."
- joncameron 12y agoOK, but what's the value in that statement–what does "discussed" mean for him? Looking at the 2009 list, there are plenty of books still circulating in discourse. Asterious Polyp and the Dan Chaon, Margaret Atwood and Jonathan Lethem novels are still quite talked about. Without context, I'm going to assume that is this just an acerbic, arms-crossed way to snub a popularly considered list.
- NickPollard 12y agoThat may be true, BUT I'd wager that the probability of a book not chosen by the NYT is even closer to zero. It's not that the NYT is bad, it's that predicting fads vs. classics at the time of release is a hard problem.