A Quote by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

The best way to measure the loss of intellectual sophistication - this "nerdification," to put it bluntly - is in the growing disappearance of sarcasm, as mechanic minds take insults a bit too literally.
Distress at losing an object can be as much a frustration at the intellectual mystery of the disappearance as about the loss itself.
Don't consider sarcasm the 'be-all' and 'end-all' of verbal intercourse. Far too many people place way too much importance on the sarcasm instead of the talking, in and of itself, as a precious shared experience between people.
I was a bit of a troubled kid growing up, let's put it that way. I didn't take pleasure in hard work.
We get too caught up in the moneymaking part of life. My own biggest concerns are to stay healthy and happy. I think the business will take care of itself and, when I put that thought out into the world, it happens. My company is absolutely growing and growing and growing.
My best mentor is a mechanic - and he never left the sixth grade. By any competency measure, he doesn't have it. But the perspective he brings to me and my life is, bar none, the most helpful.
Nonviolent Communication shows us a way of being very honest, but without any criticism, without any insults, without any put-downs, without any intellectual diagnosis implying wrongness.
The impositions that this government is trying to put on now, it's the typical death by 1,000 cuts. We'll take a little bit here, we'll take a little bit here, we'll take a little bit here. And it doesn't end the conversations for 25, 50 years. It starts the conversation again the next day what they're looking to take back.And really it's about freedoms.
The Germans have an inhuman way of cutting up their verbs. Now a verb has a hard time enough of it in this world when it's all together. It's downright inhuman to split it up. But that's just what those Germans do. They take part of a verb and put it down here, like a stake, and they take the other part of it and put it away over yonder like another stake, and between these two limits they just shovel in German. from "Disappearance of Literature
The majority of casino players leave too much to chance when playing in a casino. To put it bluntly, they don't have a clue as to how to play.
With any work worth its salt, you have to trust the author enough to take its measure. And if you apply too many preconceptions, you are not taking its measure.
For now more than ever, we must keep in the forefront of our minds the fact that whenever we take away the liberties of those we hate, we are opening the way to loss of liberty for those we love.
That's the difference between irony and sarcasm. Irony can be spontaneous, while sarcasm requires volition. You have to create sarcasm.
The contraction of theological influence has been at once the best measure, and the essential condition of intellectual advance.
A wise man is superior to any insults which can be put upon him, and the best reply to unseemly behavior is patience and moderation.
I sometimes think that perhaps our minds are too weak to grasp joy or sorrow except in small things...In the big things joy and sorrow are just alike - overwhelming. At least, we only get them bit by bit, in tiny flashes - in waves - that our minds can't stand for very long. p 199
Describing some kinds of feelings comes across as too excessive in the first person. If you put it in the third person, you're taking a little bit of a distance, and that way it becomes more apprehensible to a viewer. You're always riding this fine line of risking saying too much, do you know what I mean? When you feel you're in that area, if you shift the address a little bit it can alter it.
This site uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience. More info...
Got it!