Quotes from Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Accidentul pozitiv (ca în cazul medicamentului pentru hipertensiune care a produs beneficii colaterale ce au condus apoi la Viagra) a reprezentat metoda central? a empiriÈ™tilor în descoperirea medical?. AceeaÈ™i idee poate fi generalizat? în cazul vieÈ›ii: profitaÈ›i la maxim de întâmpl?rile fericite din jur.

volatility benefits managers since they only get one side of the payoffs.

Given that the window used for the calculation of patient survival is five years

You can only convince people who think they can benefit from being convinced.

Under the right market structure, a collection of idiots produces a well-functioning market.

the highest form of virtue is unpopular.

We could plan while bearing in mind such limitations.

10 year old books feel very aged, out of place, out of sync. 200 year old books feel contemporary. 2000 year old books feel fresh.

the reason free markets work is because they allow people to be lucky, thanks to aggressive trial and error, not by giving rewards or "incentives" for skill.

or mistaking a profitable bet for good forecasting—not convexity of payoff and optionality).

A doctor is pushed by the system to transfer risk from himself to you

Avoid calling heroes those who had no other choice.

some idiosyncratic behavior on the part of the individual (deemed at first glance "irrational") may be necessary for efficient functioning at the collective level.

We need people to take (bounded) risks.

Who is this book written for?

We could plan while bearing in mind such limitations. It just takes guts.

I love taking small losses,"he says. "I just need my winners to be large.

Simply, do not be narrow-minded.

It was calculated that actors who win an Oscar tend to live on average about five years longer than their peers who don't. People live longer in societies that have flatter social gradients. Winners kill their peers as those in a steep social gradient live shorter lives, regardless of their economic condition.

Why anything with optionality has a long-term advantage

Today's materials allow us to avoid such constraint.

those who cannot learn from experience, or don't mind taking risks they don't understand, may kill many.

In fact for most people except those that are very ill, the risks outweigh the benefits.

when you leave people alone, they tend to settle for practical reasons.