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Taleb Releases Second "New" Fooled By Randomness Chapter: A Third Lesson in Epistemology from Fat Tony
Just released by Nassim Taleb: Chapter 4. A Third Lesson in Epistemology from Fat Tony: The Error of Rationalism, or How to Out-Argue Socrates; Birds rarely write more than ornithologists – Piety for the impious –Fat Tony does not drink milk – Why not Harvardify? –Can Socrates out-argue FT ? -- Mystagogue philosophaster
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You can't philosophize your way out of this one.
A highly ethnocentric piece. Only the philosophy and history of Europe matter. Asia does not exist.
In this chapter Taleb is pointing out that too often the precepts of philospohy, history and all maner of codified, academic knowledge (let's concede "all European knowledge" for the sake of argument) is mis-applied, over-relied on or crowds out other forms of inquiry and knowledge. So either you are upset that the legacy of Asian knowledge and thought is being left out of the abuse or you are implying that Asian knowledge and thought is somehow fundamentally different from that of Europe in which case you should be taking this opportunity to show how Taleb's criticisms of the Western tradition overlap with the advantages of the Asian.
But no, you drop a multi-culti grievance bomb instead as if you're going to cause the phones at Zero Hedge HR and compliance to ring off the hook. That move I'm afraid betrays your very much modern-Western frame of mind.
Wakun complained when he saw a picture of the bearded Bodhidharma: `Why hasn't that fellow a beard?'
Is it lonely up there, on that high horse? No one, including the author, implied or stated that only the philosophy and history of Europe matter. He chose to use what he chose to use for whatever reasons he had - I assume he's trying to get his point across, and he probably understands Greek philosophy better than Buddhist philosophy (or whatever). One could argue that by jumping to the conclusion that the piece is ethnocentric because it excludes your favored Asian philosophical systems, you're just putting on display your own Asian ethnocentrism.
Gee, Plato was Celt or German or Jew? No Roman or Athenian ever described himself as "European", and none ever considered Celts Germans Jews as more than savages or animals.
Taleb is confused. I have degrees from Harvard and University of Chicago and I doubt that I could get a job working at Walmart in this economy. No one values my knowledge (except academic haters like Taleb who wished they had the right credentials) . We are only valuable to the Fat Tonys of the world as tools to validate their ponzi schemes and rackets. I know that and that's why I still have a job.
Nothing shabby about Taleb's academic credentials my friend.
http://www.fooledbyrandomness.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taleb
He uses the word random quite a bit. I've never been comfortable with the idea of random. It seems innocuous at first, but it is not. While the Universe looks 'random,' it certainly is not, it is complex. (Try to think of how you would generate a random number, what you end up doing is capture the output of a complex system.)
Here are three ideas for random, depending on context:
1. Approximation of complexity.
2. Unpredictable agent (as opposed to a free agent, both of which seem like yucky concepts.)
3. Undecided state (in context of automatons.)
Rumour has is that they're looking for Harvard Grad candidates to audition for a job administering a bankrupt mediterranean country.....
They can have ours.
LOL
Isn't it for "the black swan" new appendix? That's what I thought he was working...
OUTLIER WARNING:
http://williambanzai7.blogspot.com/2010/03/outlier-ahead.html
Right credentials??? The guy speaks 7 languages, has a PhD and an MBA. Good enough for me.
Having an Ivy League education does noy guarantee much if you take into consideration the current administrations lackeys and the bankstas who all have a "love me wall" of diplomas and still have no idea how to fix the economy but do know how to steal as much as possible; is that what the creds mean?
+1
his MBA is from wharton, however he claims to be "the unhappy holder of the degree".
the people who are criticizing him have obviously not read his work.
The right credentials depends upon the SUCKER you are going to fleece. Everyone "puffs" their resumes to fit their clients. Anyway, Taleb is scaring me. This new chapter reads like a Ted Kaczynski manifesto.
Epistemology; no longer just a Philosophy 1A lecture!
Thanks to Blogger for providing a most clear example of Nassim's illiteracy, stupidity, and ineptitude for writing. In the excerpt provided by Tyler Durden, Nassim demonstrates indisputably total ignorance of Graeco-Roman religion; and just as clearly Tyler must have exposed Nassim for cause of divulging Nassim's ignorance; to this example consequent and apt is the old saying: "It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt."
Negative, dude!
Any true scholar (such as Prof. Taleb) who comprehends that the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle is bunkum (as he so wisely demonstrated in what could only be called "Laplace's Rebuttal" in his Black Swan) is a genius in my book.
And my book is well-written, too.
Black Swan was a great book. I enjoyed it.
Baring that, I can only say, imho, he tries to get across the point of what I call, "Spread Sheet Blindness", where managers and owners and whoever go by some spreadsheet as the prime piece of information for a decision.
Like Supply Side economics, if you build it they will come. Ahhh, Fat Tony would wait until there is a real demand before he built it.
Overall I gathered he thinks alot of thinking is stupid, plain and simple.
The higher falutin stuff is over my head, my god, I'm a clown after all.
Well, his book sounds OK in practice, but I am deeply concerned about how it will hold up in theory.
Hahaha, nice one mate
I may be one of the only people who prefers Taleb's idiosyncratic writing style. Most of the people I know who read FBR and Black Swan say they can't even finish reading it because Taleb is such a 'bad' writer. I think Taleb's books (and the ideas offered therein) would reach a much broader audience (and reach more depth) if people could just better understand his writing style. In other words, maybe it's the reader (or the people I know) who lacks the talent. Many people read his books but don't necessarily 'get' the content.
Reminds me of a movie quote [modified by me]: "There's a big difference between hearing and listening. [Some people] can't hear [Taleb]. They only listen."
The problem is that language, by definition, is reductionist. If ideas didn't have to be reduced from their full size in the author's brain into symbolic words on a page and then expanded back into full form in the reader's brain, then I think good ideas could be spread with higher resolution and less degredation and distortion. It would also reduce the chances of false (or worse, lack of) interpretation.
Either way, I think Taleb gets more criticism than he desevers. It's is one thing to disagree with an author's viewpoints, but it is quite another to form an opinion before one even understands what has been written.
As an example, see this youtube clip of Nassim Taleb Gets Angry ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABXPICWjFIo ). It is OBVIOUS that no one in that interview understands (or is 'hearing') 1/10th of what Taleb is trying to say. No doubt, it's got to be frustrating...like calling customer service at any big company.
Taleb infuriates, in part, because he demands that an education should include both the Greeks and the Romans. Today's children never, ever study Latin in high school. At my public school in small town Florida 50 years ago, all of the college bound kids took three or four years of Latin. I read easily a dozen books translated to English from the Greeks and Romans. And translated a half-dozen from Latin. (Badly.)
Today, looking at Wall Street, those lessons are more important than any computer skill and mathematical prowess. Taleb reminds me to think carefully, slowly, accurately. Of course, he is hated. Today's education is a trade school for saleable skills. Thinking carefully, not so much.
YES!
Read it twice.
Keynes, Taleb, Koo, Klein.
Keynes for Yin-period fiscal policy. Taleb for sanity. Koo for fitting everything together. Naomi Klein for finally giving a proportionate evaluation to the role of criminality in the politics of capitalism's democracies.
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