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.
Those who were unlucky in life in spite of their skills would eventually rise. The lucky fool might have benefited from some luck in life; over the longer run he would slowly converge to the state of a less-lucky idiot. Each one would revert to his long-term properties.
By all means, avoid words – threats, complaints, justification, narratives, reframing, attempts to win arguments, supplications; avoid words!
Luck is the grand equalizer.
It does not matter how frequently something succeeds if failure is too costly to bear.
But they never notice the following inconsistency: this so-called worst-case event, when it happened, exceeded the worst case at the time.
It is my great hope someday, to see science and decision makers rediscover what the ancients have always known. Namely that our highest currency is respect.
Few understand that procrastination is our natural defense, letting things take care of themselves and exercise their antifragility.
Categorizing is necessary for humans, but it becomes pathological when the category is seen as definitive, preventing people from considering the fuzziness of boundaries, let alone revising their categories.
While in theory randomness is an intrinsic property, in practice, randomness is incomplete information.
What fools call “wasting time” is most often the best investment.
The characteristic feature of the loser is to bemoan, in general terms, mankind’s flaws, biases, contradictions, and irrationality – without exploiting them for fun and profit.
Never ask a trader if he is profitable: you can easily see it in his gesture and gait.
Private equity has absolutely no reason to exist. The private equity holder has all the upside and the banks all the downside.
I want them poor and they deserve to be poor. You can’t have capitalism without punishment.
I remind myself of Einstein’s remark that common sense is nothing but a collection of misconceptions acquired by age 18...
Read books are far less valuable than unread ones. The library should contain as much of what you do not know as your financial means, mortgage rates, and the currently tight real-estate market alow you to put there.
I always remind myself that what one observes is at best a combination of variance and returns, not just returns.
But it remains the case that you know what is wrong with a lot more confidence than you know what is right.
Rank beliefs not according to their plausibility but by the harm they may cause.