Nassim Nicholas Taleb Quotes
It is now the scientific consensus that our risk-avoidance mechanism is not mediated by the cognitive modules of our brain, but rather by the emotional ones. This may have made us fit for the Pleistocene era. Our risk machinery is designed to run away from tigers; it is not designed for the information-laden modern world.
Quotes to Explore
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The only thing that matters is what happens on the little hump out in the middle of the field.
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Some people say I chastise the Republican Party too much.
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Republicans are for both the man and the dollar, but in case of conflict the man before the dollar.
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There was a time I desperately needed for the world to know that I was no category guy. My whole goal in life was to reach that certain success where people will say, 'Hey, that guy can do anything. He's the Evel Knievel of music. He's jumping over 15 buses!'
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We all have our strengths and our failings.
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I always say that I don't like it when people follow trends too much, just because it is on the runway. I think what you wear really does need to reflect what your own personal style is.
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What I always say to people is dress from the feet up. If you don't normally wear colour, try some colour on your feet; it's the place, I think you can have fun and update your outfit.
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I don't like formal gardens. I like wild nature. It's just the wilderness instinct in me, I guess.
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It's easy for me to get along with chess players. Even though we are all very different, we have chess in common.
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I think a lot of people want me to be like the characters in the books: they want that kind of congruence.
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Without troublesome work, no one can have any concrete, full idea of what pure mathematical research is like or of the profusion of insights that can be obtained from it.
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You cannot underestimate people's ability to spot a soulless, bureaucratic tactic a million miles away. It's a big reason why so many companies that have dipped a toe in social media waters have failed miserably.
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When we write about Auschwitz, we must know that Auschwitz, in a certain sense at least, suspended literature. One can only write a black novel about Auschwitz or - you should excuse the expression - a cheap serial, which begins in Auschwitz and is still not over.
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When I was writing my dissertation, I wrote about Freud and the process of sublimation, which is when you learn to stop breast-feeding, or stop going to the toilet whenever you want to. It's about learning to repress a desire for instant gratification.
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I never want to change so much that people can't recognize me.
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I realized in the early days I just didn't edit at all. But I think you become a little more cagey with your lyrics when you know more people are going to hear them and make assumptions about you as a person. Realizing that, you want to be a little more opaque.
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The Queen and Electric Light Orchestra harmonies are so distinct and fit in our songs so well sometimes, but we don't know how to do them properly.
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It will appear evident upon attentive consideration that equality of intellectual and physical advantages is the only sure foundation of liberty, and that such equality may best, and perhaps only, be obtained by a union of interests and cooperation in labor.
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'Don't Look Now' is a masterpiece. I think it's the best-edited movie of all time. I adore it.
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There is nothing intrinsic linking any religion with any act of violence. The crusades don't prove that Christianity was violent. The Inquisition doesn't prove that Christianity tortures people. But that Christianity did torture people.
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I'm not very good at being domesticated. I've tried. The domestic life I find claustrophobic - the rituals and habits and patterns.
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A sign in the yard of a church next door said CHRIST IS THE ANSWER. (The question, of course, is: What do you say when you strike your thumb with a hammer?)
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At any moment the decision you make can change the course of your life forever.
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It is now the scientific consensus that our risk-avoidance mechanism is not mediated by the cognitive modules of our brain, but rather by the emotional ones. This may have made us fit for the Pleistocene era. Our risk machinery is designed to run away from tigers; it is not designed for the information-laden modern world.
