Black Swans: Stories

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I didn't find him as arrogant as others said he is (try Richard Dawkins in The God Delusion, now that's arrogance), mainly because of his intelligence, and humor which made me snort from the beginning to the end. Yes, he's trashing some celebrities' statements in the field, but the way he does it is quite witty and hilarious (albeit not that nice). My only other complaint--and it's not one I can really spell out with any confidence--is this: I came away with this diffuse sense of overconfidence from Taleb...that he believes his metaphors and conjectures, etc. apply in more instances than they actually do. Shortform note: It’s unclear how Taleb defines “predicted.” Plenty of science-fiction writers and cultural commentators anticipated recent technologies like the Internet and augmented and virtual reality.)

The way she was so casual about cheating like everyone cheats and it is normal to do so, it is not and not everyone does it! I feel like dating and relationships didn't evolve at all since the 80s~90s or when was this book written and I am disappointed af. Also, there were no feelings behind the cheating, everyone was cheating. She was sleeping with a married man. The only reason I rated Jealousy, the first chapter, 5 stars is that it was funny how it portrayed the difference between the sexes when they cheat. Everything is fine and everyone is supposed to be happy if HE cheats, but if SHE does it she is a hoe! I find it funny how this mentality is still going even now, and even more because really a woman is a hoe either way after a break-up or in any situation. Ultimately, our world and future are unknowable and unpredictable because of various factors, including: He would like for us to realize our overuse of normal-curve thinking, which makes us minimize risk and have no expectations out of the ordinary: like the turkey whose experience all goes to show how human beings love him and care about him and prove it by feeding him--until Thanksgiving day arrives and he's dinner. You know, there were some moments in here that just felt like navel-gazing, pimping-myself-out (which I love), rich-bitch nonsense. And then there were moments of extreme clarity and hyper-focused lucidity delivered with a cutting twist.She’s a natural. Or gives every appearance of being one, her writing elevated yet slangy, bright, bouncy, cheerfully hedonistic—L.A. in it purest, most idealized form.”— Vanity Fair The first time through, I listened to this book with my husband, usually while I was cooking. Although I tried to stop and mark important passages, I ended up thinking the book was not very systematic. The second time through, chapter by chapter, the method in his madness is more apparent.

We concentrate on things we already know and time and time again fail to take into consideration what we don’t know. We are, therefore, unable to truly estimate opportunities, too vulnerable to the impulse to simplify, narrate, and categorize, and not open enough to rewarding those who can imagine the “impossible.” Anybody who has read Richard Dawkins will be familiar with the arrogance with which Taleb states his claims and dismisses the thinking of others. It is almost enough to make one toss the book away. Statisticians, it has been shown, tend to leave their brains in the classroom and engage in the most trivial inferential errors once they are let out on the streets."

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Taleb's observations on the expectations and biases we hold, especially when estimating risk or uncertainty, are pretty dead on. Easterbrook, Gregg (April 22, 2007). "Possibly Maybe". The New York Times . Retrieved December 20, 2020. Babitz's writing is also like the jacaranda tree in glorious bloom—bewitching an entire city, but all too brief." — Los Angeles Review of Books

Babitz’s talent for the brilliant line, honed to a point, never interferes with her feel for languid pleasures." — The New York Times Book Review I don’t know how I feel about “the writer” being involved in the observation. Observing themselves in the observation of an event/making both things the focus? It’s a unique writing style apparently popularized by Didion. However, as I’m reading The White Album right now — I just feel like give me the goods, I don’t wanna hear about what you were doing at the same time. Just tell me that story or tell me yours. My brain is tired and I can’t do no mo’! Epistemic arrogance, the pretensions of “experts,” our ever-increasing access to information—all belie an incontrovertible fact: In many, perhaps even most, areas of our lives, prediction is simply impossible. And, in spite of all the plights and the nasty people, Eve Babtiz has always envisioned life like a tango (“Tangoland”). After all, we just can’t turn to mush, we cannot leave, we must stay and resist. I had this constant feeling like Babitz was this older and wiser sister, teaching and revealing me the amazing secrets of life. She doesn’t mind rottenness and impoliteness. She thrives on that and transforms it into beauty, into experience, into learning, into literature, into art. Because of various habits innate to our species—our penchant for telling stories, our belief in cause and effect, our tendency to “cluster” around specific ideas (confirmation bias) and “tunnel” into specific disciplines or methods (specialization)—we tend to miss or minimize randomness’s effect on our lives. Experts are no less guilty of this blindspot than your average person.Events are unexplainable , but intelligent people are good at making explanations. The smarter they are, the better sounding the explanation. What’s more worrisome is that all these beliefs and accounts appeared to be logically coherent and devoid of inconsistencies. Any reduction in the world around us can have explosive consequences since it rules out some sources of uncertainty. You may think that Islam is your ally against the threat of communism, until they fly two planes into New York. In 1963, her first brush with notoriety came through Julian Wasser's iconic photograph of a nude, twenty-year-old Babitz playing chess with the artist Marcel Duchamp, on the occasion of his landmark retrospective at the Pasadena Art Museum. The show was curated by Walter Hopps, with whom Babitz was having an affair at the time. The photograph is described by the Smithsonian Archives of American Art as being “among the key documentary images of American modern art”. Scholars are judged mostly on how many times their work is referenced in other people's work... it's an I quote you, you quote me type of business." The first claim is only partially true. The reputation of an author is judged by their published work, but the products of science are ideas. These ideas are, in the scientific literature, judged primarily by their content. In science, a humble patent clerk can become the biggest name in theoretical physics by having the right idea. The accusation of tit-for-tat citation is ludicrous. Speak for yourself, Taleb! Taleb, Nassim Nicholas. "Opacity: What We Do Not See". Fooledbyrandomness.com . Retrieved October 1, 2010.