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Re:The Most Intolerant Wins: The Dictatorship of the Small M... by dagw on Friday August 30, 2019 @07:23AM (#20837538)
Someone needs to tell Taleb there is a field called Social Psychology where everything he is raving about is formally studied

He's a smart guy, so he's no doubt fully aware of all the people you mention. He's also equally aware that he sells more books than all those people combined by probably a couple of order of magnitude.

Re:The Most Intolerant Wins: The Dictatorship of the Small M... by chiefalchemist on Friday August 30, 2019 @07:32AM (#20837572)
Aware? Sure. But I think the comment is directed at a lack of understanding. That is:

Understanding > Knowledge

Taleb hammer is economists. All his nails are defined by that hammer. Yes, it's one way of trying to manage thoughts about the __complex__ world around us. But it's not complete. It doesn't always work. That hammer has blindspots.

You'd think Taleb would know this as well. But his hammer doesn't change. The least he can do, as every good argument should, is to mention the blindspots and how others might have insights. He leaves that out of the picture.

Given Taleb's theory...ironic, huh?

Re:The Most Intolerant Wins: The Dictatorship of the Small M... by dagw on Friday August 30, 2019 @07:37AM (#20837598)
There are two "Nassim Taleb's" out in the world. Taleb the academic and Taleb the pop-culture author and their writing styles are completely different. The former actually tries to make a coherent argument while the latter is basically competing with Gladwell to sell as many books as possible and gives zero fucks that not all his arguments stand up to scrutiny. Perhaps that is Taleb's attempt at being Antifragile.
Re:The Most Intolerant Wins: The Dictatorship of the Small M... by chiefalchemist on Friday August 30, 2019 @09:35AM (#20838423)
> " gives zero fucks that not all his arguments stand up to scrutiny."

Gives zero fucks his arguments are not arguments at all. What a shame.

Yeah Gladwell. Comes up with a theory, then cherry-picks for studies that support it, but never mentions anything that doesn't.

Re:The Most Intolerant Wins: The Dictatorship of the Small M... by andreilys on Friday August 30, 2019 @10:32AM (#20838983)
Seems like a pretty wide sweeping generalization to say his arguments are not arguments at all.

What is your specific bone to pick with Taleb?

Re:The Most Intolerant Wins: The Dictatorship of the Small M... by chiefalchemist on Friday August 30, 2019 @01:03PM (#20840402)
I was commenting on the comment, and rephrasing a bit for accuracy. That is, if you're being selective about the facts you present and you're not concerned about how solid your position is as a result, then you're not making an argument. Your intellectual laziness should not be rewarded.

Ultimately, you're just spewing bullshit, and in many cases just trying to use to reputation as a (cheap) substitute for truth and fact. Again, such intellectual laziness should not be rewarded.

I'm not sure why we're grown so tolerant and accepting of what so often amounts to raw bullshit.

Re:The Most Intolerant Wins: The Dictatorship of the Small M... by pjc50 on Friday August 30, 2019 @07:59AM (#20837697)
> he sells more books than all those people combined by probably a couple of order of magnitude.

That's often an indicator that the content has been made inaccurate in the direction that people want to hear.

Re:The Most Intolerant Wins: The Dictatorship of the Small M... by sheldor on Friday August 30, 2019 @08:06AM (#20837736)
Being smart and being properly (academically) educated are two (very) different things.
Re:The Most Intolerant Wins: The Dictatorship of the Small M... by dagw on Friday August 30, 2019 @05:36PM (#20842953)
Again, not to defend Taleb too much, but he does have just about every academic credential a person can have.
Re:The Most Intolerant Wins: The Dictatorship of the Small M... by jpiabrantes on Friday August 30, 2019 @07:43AM (#20837611)
He "sells" these ideas as if he was the first one to ever think of them.