"A mistake is not something to be determined after the fact, but in the light of the information until that point."

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

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“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

"We have a veto on all EU defence matters and we would oppose any move to create one. In fact, I don't know any European defence minister who wants a European army."

— Michael Fallon

Politics1952

#knowledge

"Who is to determine what the perfect is? It could only be those who are themselves perfect and who therefore know what it means. Here yawns the abyss of that circularity in which the whole of human Da…"

— Martin Heidegger

Philosophy1889–1976

#health

"I loathe the French. There's not one French person I can think of except—maybe two very simple people. Maybe Boudin, who's so un-French. You know, they're really not very nice. They're all for themsel…"

— Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Politics1929–1994

#knowledge

"“Sometimes, you know, when we meet people, it seems to me it's hard to gain access to a real conversation. It's almost like it takes one of us to just be real, even if it's to say "you know, I don't r…"

— Adyashanti

Literature1962

#knowledge