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Re:Spreadsheet of Steven Pinker’s book recommendations by tptacek on Sunday October 14, 2018 @12:08PM (#18213548)
He's a gadfly, not a scientist writing to popularize a field he actually does work in. (With the plausible exception of options trading).
Re:Spreadsheet of Steven Pinker’s book recommendations by AceyMan on Sunday October 14, 2018 @02:03PM (#18214169)
Whether he's truly a gladly or not, you have to appreciate a guy who's self-aware enough about such opinions that he listed this quip first on the back cover of his latest book (from memory, mind you) —

>The trouble with Taleb isn't that he's an asshole—he is an asshole. The trouble with Taleb is that he is right.

Love that!

Re:Spreadsheet of Steven Pinker’s book recommendations by claytoneast on Sunday October 14, 2018 @01:07PM (#18213873)
Do you think his central thesises around Black Swan events, tail risks, hedging, and skin-in-the-game principle for evaluating advice/statements, are not relevant to scopes beyond options trading?

Note, I am not stating he is not a gadfly. He is, absolutely. But is he wrong?

Re:Spreadsheet of Steven Pinker’s book recommendations by tptacek on Sunday October 14, 2018 @01:21PM (#18213962)
I'd take him about as seriously as I take Wikipedia. Sometimes useful. Follow links to sources, evaluate those.