Quotes from Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Theories that have not yet been known to be wrong, not falsified yet, but are exposed to be proved wrong. Why is a theory never right? Because we will never know if all the swans are white

the mistake may turn out to be inconsequential. Or

Thou shalt not become antifragile at the expense of others.

mistaking absence of evidence (of harm) for evidence of absence

one needs a decent university "name" to get ahead in life;

Our perceptions and intuitions, as expressed in deeds, can be superior to what we know and tabulate

So our mission in life becomes simply "how not to be a turkey

as a patent side effect of mathematics is making people over-optimize and cut corners, causing fragility. Just look how the new is increasingly more perishable than the old.

My idea is that not only are some scientific results useless in real life, because they underestimate the impact of the highly improbable (or lead us to ignore it), but that many of them may be actually creating Black Swans.

Whatever you do, just don't be a dog claiming to be a wolf.

Hamburgers, to many of us, are vastly tastier than filet mignon because of the higher fat content, but people have been convinced that the latter is better because it is more expensive to produce.

Everything in religious law comes down to the refinements, applications, and interpretations of the Golden Rule, "Don't do unto others what you don't want them to do to you." This we saw was the logic behind Hammurabi's rule.

with huge disparities between efforts and rewards—a few can take a large share of the pie, leaving others out entirely at no fault of their own.

Note that scholars are judged mostly on how many times their work is referenced in other people's work, and thus cliques of people who quote one another are formed (it's an "I quote you, you quote me" type of business).

With respect to Black Swans, you act to protect yourself from negative ones (or expose yourself to positive ones) even though you may have no evidence that they can take place

Traders trade ? traders figure out techniques and products ? academic economists find formulas and claim traders are using them ? new traders believe academics ? blowups (from theory-induced fragility)

We know more than we think we do, a lot more than we can articulate.

La Ley de Rodas establece que si se tira mercancía para aligerar la carga del barco, lo que se ha perdido para beneficio de todos debe recuperarse mediante la contribución de todos.

Where is the role of optionality in this?

Time is an eraser rather than a builder, and a good one at breaking the fragile—whether buildings or ideas.

Just as you should treat others in the way you'd like to be treated, you would like to share the responsibility for events without unfairness and inequity.

the feeling of false stability.

A distortion is meant to bring about an enhancement for your aesthetic experience.

But possible future deviations from the course of the past are infinite.