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daeus 's review for:

4.0

Aggressive and arrogant, but also brilliant and practical. Definitely see why it was so influential (especially since it came out in 2007, right before the crash of 08).

Quotes
- "We do not spontaneously learn that we don't learn that we don't learn."
- "Reality provides such forced revisions of beliefs at quite a high frequency."
- "Mistaking a niiave observation of the past as something definitive or representative of the future is our one and only cause of our inability to understand the black swan." Ex. A turkey farm observing every day of the year of data before Thanksgiving.
- "We cannot manufactor more information than the past can deliver...we just don't know how much information there is in the past."
- "... principle aim is to not be a sucker in things that matter...all I care about is making a decision without being the turkey."
- 'how do you cross the street with so much risk consciousness? I'm just trying to avoid crossing the street blindfolded.'
- "We tend to use knowledge as therapy."
- "True, our knowledge does grow, but it's threatened by greater increases in confidence."
- "Looking busy can help you claim responsibility for the results in a random environment. The appearance of busyness reinforces the perception of causality, of the link between results and ones roles in them."
- "I'll never get to know the unknown.... however, I can always guess how it can affect me, and I should base my decisions around that..... I don't know the odds of an earthquake, but I can imagine how San Francisco might be affected by one."
- 'an average human would have to be half male and have female.'
- "'I had to invent my predecessors so people take me seriously' he once told me. And he used the credibility of big guns as a rhetorical device. One can always ferret out predecessors for any thought.... the brand name goes to the one who connects the dots, not the one who makes a casual observation... in the end it's those who derive consequences and seize the importance of the ideas, seeing their real value, who win the day."
- "Ideas come and go, stories stay."