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" In the United States, large corporations control some members of Congress. All this does is delay the corporation's funeral at our expense. "

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

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" We are victims of the post-Enlightenment view that the world functions like a sophisticated machine, to be understood like a textbook engineering problem and run by wonks. In other words, like a home appliance, not like the human body. "

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" Failure saves lives. In the airline industry, every time a plane crashes the probability of the next crash is lowered by that. The Titanic saved lives because we're building bigger and bigger ships. So these people died, but we have effectively improved the safety of the system, and nothing failed in vain. "

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" If you are in banking and lending, surprise outcomes are likely to be negative for you. "

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" Debt is a mistake between lender and borrower, and both should suffer. "

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" Individuals should think about the worst-case scenarios and plan for them. The world will be crazier than you think it will be. Put money away, and then you can live with much more freedom. "

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" I am happy everywhere except in places where I see glitz and rich farts. I am happiest in Brooklyn, where the concentration of rich farts is minimal. "

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" We know from chaos theory that even if you had a perfect model of the world, you'd need infinite precision in order to predict future events. With sociopolitical or economic phenomena, we don't have anything like that. "

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" Writing is sacred, other activities are profane, and I don't want them to corrupt my writing. "

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" Globalization has created this interlocking fragility. At no time in the history of the universe has the cancellation of a Christmas order in New York meant layoffs in China. "

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" I don't read the papers; I stopped reading the papers. I read the papers only during periods of crisis, and I think papers are too long on a regular day and too short days when we have a crisis. "

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" There are two types of people: those who try to win and those who try to win arguments. They are never the same. "

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" The track record of economists in predicting events is monstrously bad. It is beyond simplification; it is like medieval medicine. "

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" In social policy, when we provide a safety net, it should be designed to help people take more entrepreneurial risks, not to turn them into dependents. This doesn't mean that we should be callous to the underprivileged. "

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" Paul Krugman is a danger to society! "

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" People employed in financial institutions are rarely interesting and even more rarely likable. "

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" The next time you experience a blackout, take some solace by looking at the sky. You will not recognize it. "

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" We should ban banks from risk-taking because society is going to pay the price. "

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" Most people are sceptical about the wrong things and gullible about the wrong things. "

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" A country's assets reside in the tinkerers, the hobbyists, and the risk-takers. "

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" The world we live in is vastly different from the world we think we live in. "

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" Deficits are like putting dynamite in the hands of children. They can get out of control very quickly. "

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" If I ask you to write down the last 4 digits of your social security number, and then take you out to lunch and ask you how many dentists there are in Manhattan, there's going to be a high correlation between those two numbers. What happens is that the number psychologically makes you feel confident. "

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" Never take advice from anyone in a tie. They'll bankrupt you. Don't ask a general for advice on war, and don't ask a broker for advice on money. "

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" When you write, you don't have the social constraints of having people in front of you, so you talk about abstract matters. "

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" A good maxim allows you to have the last word without even starting a conversation. "

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" The grandchildren should not bear the debts of the grandparents. "

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" Never think that lack of variability is stability. Don't confuse lack of volatility with stability, ever. "

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" I'm a capitalist but one who is smallist and localist, and who favours businesses where owners are still in charge. "

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" When you ask people, 'What's the opposite of fragile?,' they tend to say robust, resilient, adaptable, solid, strong. That's not it. The opposite of fragile is something that gains from disorder. "

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