"conomists are evaluated on how intelligent they sound, not on a scientific measure of their knowledge of reality."

Nassim Nicholas Taleb Mathematics See all quotes by Nassim Nicholas Taleb →

React to this quote

More by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

“To be completely cured of newspapers, spend a year reading the previous week’s newspapers.”

“Professor Karl Pearson... devised the first test of nonrandomness... He examined millions of runs of what was called a Monte Carlo ... He discovered... the runs were not purely random. ...Philosophers of statistics call this the reference case problem to explain that there is no true attainable randomness in practice, only in theory.”

“Academia is to knowledge what prostitution is to love.”

“Greatness starts with the replacement of hatred with polite disdain.”

“When conflicted between two choices, take neither.”

“Wit seduces by signaling intelligence without nerdiness.”

Resonant Thoughts

"The Black Artist's role in America is to aid in the destruction of America as he knows it. His role is to report and reflect so precisely the nature of the society, and of himself, in that society, th…"

— Amiri Baraka

Literature1934–2014

#knowledge

"If true knowledge, the Gnosis, is again to form a part of Christian teachings, it can only be under the old restrictions, and the idea of levelling down to the capacities of the least developed must b…"

— Annie Besant

Politics1847–1933

#knowledge

"Competencies can be communicated — and therefore can be taught and learned."

— Dave Ulrich

Economics1953

#knowledge

"The Ramayan also happens to be part of the Mahabharata, dated between 300 BCE and 300 CE, where it is called the Ramopakhyan. When the Pandavas bemoaned their thirteen years of forest exile, Rishi Mar…"

— Devdutt Pattanaik

Literature1970

#nature