Nassim Nicholas TalebThinkers

Academia is only useful when trying to be useless and dangerous when trying to be useful.

Academia is to knowledge what prostitution is to love — close enough on the surface but, to the non-sucker, not exactly the same thing.

Antifragile is the phenomenon of benefitting or thriving from shock, volatility, disorder, or randomness (stressors).

The Black swan theory is the idea that rare events serve an enormously important role in history which is complicated by the fact that while these events are definitionally unpredictable they are necessarily always rationalized in hindsight.

Capitalism is the idea that one can control a slave much better by convincing him he is an employee.

Death is, in classical times, that about which man's worst fear is to suffer it ingloriously... the modern man's worst fear is just death itself.

Freedom is not just avoiding to be a slave. You also need to avoid becoming a master.

A Friend is someone of whom it can be said: If you find any reason why you and someone are friends, you are not friends.

A Friend is someone with whom we unwittingly amplify commonalities just as we amplify dissimilarities with strangers and contrasts with enemies.

The Global elite is a corrupt class of risk-averse insiders immune to the consequences of their actions who game the system while citizens pay the price.

The Humanities is useful only when trying to be useless (i.e philosophy) and dangerous when trying to be useful.

Humility is largely successfully disguised arrogance.