If I ask you to write down the last 4 digits of your social security n…

Nassim Nicholas Taleb
178 citations
If I ask you to write down the last 4 digits of your social security number, and then take you out to lunch and ask you how many dentists there are in Manhattan, there's going to be a high correlation between those two numbers. What happens is that the number psychologically makes you feel confident.
Philosophy
23

More Author Quotes

I've debated many economists who claim to specialize in risk and probability: when one takes them slightly outside their narrow focus, but within the discipline of probability, they fall apart, with … ▶
Only the autodidacts are free. ✨ Nassim Nicholas Taleb (2016). Incerto 4-Book Bundle: Fooled by Randomness The Black Swan The Bed of Procrustes Antifragile, p.326, Random House
Few understand that procrastination is our natural defense, letting things take care of themselves and exercise their antifragility; it results from some ecological or naturalistic wisdom, and is not … ▶
We tend to treat our knowledge as personal property to be protected and defended. It is an ornament that allows us to rise in the pecking order. [...] We take what we know a little too seriously. ✨ T … ▶
A Stoic is someone who transforms fear into prudence, pain into transformation, mistakes into initiation, and desire into undertaking.

More Author Quotes

Most Cited Authors

The Best Quotes

Most Liked Authors

Curated Author Quotes