Quotes About Influence

when something is in relation to something else, that something else can be manipulated.

the notion of incentives as limited to financial gain cannot otherwise explain the very existence of an economics academia that promotes the idea of self-interest.

Look at the implication for the Black Swan. Extremistan can produce Black Swans, and does, since a few occurrences have had huge influences on history. This is the main idea of this book.

Stálin não poderia ter existido em um município".

it is contagion that determines the fate of a theory in social science, not its validity.

By the mechanism of retrospective determinism we will find the "cause"—actually

Many are forced by peer and social pressures to do so

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

No amount of advertising will match the credibility of a genuine user.

Even more: dependence on circumstances—rather, the emotions that arise from circumstances—induces a form of slavery.

Another case where economists may inspire us but should never tell us what to do

The interactions matter more than the nature of the units.

o acesso a dados aumenta a intervenção, fazendo com que nos comportemos como o sujeito neurótico.

Regulators, you may recall, have an incentive to make rules as complex as possible so their expertise can later be hired at a higher price.)

We saw with the minority rule that the intolerant will run over the tolerant;

In the end we are being driven by history, all the while thinking that we are doing the driving.

Esse é o argumento que David Hume, em sua História da Inglaterra,5 apresenta em favor dos pequenos Estados, já que os grandes cedem à sedução da guerra.

It is much easier to signal self-confidence if you are exceedingly polite and friendly; you can control people without having to offend their sensitivity.

that professionals are significantly influenced by numbers that they know to be irrelevant to their decision

Surprisingly, the book that influenced me was not written by someone in the thinking business but by a journalist: William Shirer's Berlin Diary: The Journal of a Foreign Correspondent, 1934–1941. Shirer was a radio correspondent, famous for his book The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.

Birds fly and those who lecture them are the ones who write their story. So it is easy to see that history is truly written by losers with time on their hands and a protected academic position.

Frédéric Dard, Libanius Antiochus, Michael Oakeshott, John Gray, Ammianus Marcellinus, Ibn Battuta, Saadia Gaon, or Joseph de Maistre; he

It is easier for the rich to get richer, for the famous to become more famous.

Note that art, because of its dependence on word of mouth, is extremely prone to these cumulative-advantage effects.