Quotes About Author

As Yogi Berra said, "In theory there is no difference between theory and practice; in practice there is.

We have been unconsciously exploiting antifragility in practical life and, consciously, rejecting it—particularly in intellectual life. The

I am never bothered by normal people; it is the bull***tter in the intellectual profession who bothers me. Seeing the psychologist Steven Pinker making pronouncements about things intellectual has a similar effect to encountering a drive-in Burger King while hiking in the middle of a national park.

If both the positive and the negative consequences of an action fell on its author, our learning would be fast. But often an action's positive consequences benefit only its author, since they are visible, while the negative consequences, being invisible, apply to others, with a net cost to society.

An ad hominem attack against an intellectual, not against an idea, is highly flattering. It indicates that the person does not have anything intelligent to say about your message.

we are not learning from a mere thousand days, but benefiting, thanks to evolution, from the learning of our ancestors—which found its way into our biology.

When you don't have debt you don't care about your reputation in economics circles—and somehow it is only when you don't care about your reputation that you tend to have a good one. Just

reality does not have the same closed and symmetric laws and regulations as games.

matters are far worse: we may have no less of a problem with phony skepticism.

the studious examination of the past in the greatest of detail does not teach you much about the mind of History; it only gives you the illusion of understanding it.

A complex system, contrary to what people believe, does not require complicated systems and regulations and intricate policies.

am, at the Fed level, libertarian; at the state level, Republican; at the local level, Democrat; and at the family and friends level, a socialist.

naïve empiricism—successions of anecdotes selected to fit a story do not constitute evidence. Anyone

while the statements are dressed up to look as if they were made for the benefit of the collective.

But we don't easily translate this to other domains and remain victims of scientism

options pushed me to study the math of probability.

grammar is something people without anything more exciting to do in their lives codify into a book. While

One of the attractive aspects of my profession as a quantitative option trader is that

I have had the privilege to work with colleagues who have hidden paranoid disorders that come to the surface on occasion.

antifragility equals more to gain than to lose equals more upside than downside equals asymmetry (favorable) equals likes volatility.

Myths impart order to the disorder of human perception and the perceived "chaos of human experience."*

Monsieur de Norpois is made to be ashamed of the fact that he expressed a different opinion. Proust did not consider that the diplomat might have changed his mind. We

the lucky surge of interest for reasons completely external to the works themselves.

They may hate McDonald's, but they certainly hate uncertainty even more.