Top all-time · #415
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Personal blog · fooledbyrandomness.comeconomicswriting
Nassim Nicholas Taleb's personal blog at fooledbyrandomness.com covers economics and writing. Since 2008, 135 different Hacker News readers have linked it 171 times, most often “Benoit Mandelbrot, 1924-2010”. No feed was found, so read it on the site itself.
Rarely recommended · 4 of 40 sampled comments recommend it?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Taleb's papers on fat tails, the precautionary principle and risk, often to back arguments about GMOs, Bitcoin or banking. Some comments call him arrogant or wrong on specific points.
- Recommended for · 4 comments
- One commenter calls his opinions 'genuinely great' and says they love his books; another calls him an excellent writer; another finds his perspective terribly r
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 40 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Most-linked posts?
- Benoit Mandelbrot, 1924-20109 people · 11 mentions · first linked 2008-10-02
- Bitcoin, Currencies, and Bubbles [pdf]9 people · 10 mentions · first linked 2021-06-27
- The Most Intolerant Wins: The Dominance of the Stubborn Minority [pdf]9 people · 9 mentions · first linked 2015-12-07
- Precautionary Principle and Application to GMOs8 people · 11 mentions · first linked 2014-02-12
- Nassim Taleb's view on Piketty7 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2008-04-06
- Probability and Risk in the Real World6 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2013-07-15
- How to Legally Own Another Person (2015) [pdf]5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2017-01-24
- The Decline of Violent Conflicts: What Do the Data Say? [pdf]5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2019-07-04
- Understanding is a Poor Substitute for Convexity (2012) [pdf]3 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2020-01-20
- /pp2.pdf3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2021-06-21
What Hacker News says?
Unless you read his paper. http://www.fooledbyrandomness.com/pp2.pdf
Comment linking /pp2.pdf
on “Donald Trump’s Contract with the American Voter [pdf]”Submitted Skin in the Game – chapter drafts by Nassim Taleb as a story · 177 points
HN discussionNoah Smith is about as intellectually dishonest as they come. He has misrepresented Taleb’s work on several occasions, possibly never having read it in the first place: https://www.fooledbyrandomness.com/SmithBSVendor.html
Comment linking /SmithBSVendor.html
on “David Graeber has died”Submitted How to Legally Own Another Person (2015) [pdf] as a story · 154 points
HN discussionPeople probably recognize the individual books rather than the Incerto collection. http://www.fooledbyrandomness.com/ Skin in the game is the latest, it is on my reading list. Taleb is an arrogant *hole, but I love following him on Twitter and reading his books. A genuinely great opinions.
Comment linking /
on “Ask HN: 2018 Summer Reading List?”Submitted The Most Intolerant Wins: The Dominance of the Stubborn Minority [pdf] as a story · 102 points
HN discussion> I have zero doubt that BTC will hit $1m one day. Well, there's your problem. Here is a potentially interesting math paper that comes to very different conclusions: https://www.fooledbyrandomness.com/BTC-QF.pdf
Comment linking /BTC-QF.pdf
on “I wasted years of my life in crypto”Submitted Ten principles for a Black Swan-proof world as a story · 64 points
HN discussionSomewhat related: http://www.fooledbyrandomness.com/minority.pdf
Comment linking /minority.pdf
on “In defence of Douglas Crockford”Submitted What are the chances of a third world war? [pdf] as a story · 54 points
HN discussionhttp://www.fooledbyrandomness.com/equality.pdf - Beware of the person who gives advice, telling you that a certain action on your part is “good for you” while it is also good for him, while the harm to you doesn’t directly affect him.
Comment linking /equality.pdf
on “To Slow Global Warming, We Need Nuclear Power (Op-Ed)”Submitted On the tail risk of violent conflict and its underestimation [pdf] as a story · 36 points
HN discussionWaymo has spent more money, resources and started earlier than Tesla and yet it is only marginally better than Tesla at this point. from Fig 1: https://fooledbyrandomness.com/ConvexityScience.pdf Waymo (and most HNers) : Knowledge Edge Musk / (Billionaires hated by HNers) : Convexity Bias
Comment linking /ConvexityScience.pdf
on “Waymo One is now open to everyone in San Francisco”Submitted Tail Risk Constraints and Maximum Entropy [pdf] as a story · 22 points
HN discussionBy giving an European example, you are actually proving my point. Just read this https://fooledbyrandomness.com/ConvexityScience.pdf From fig (1) Waymo/ HNers : Knowledge Edge Musk : Convexity Bias That's why Musk's approach will win. Waymo will no doubt provide a safe, rule-following driving experience, but Tesla will have frontier breakthroughs and provide more human-like, adapting and sufficiently aggressive driv…
Comment linking /ConvexityScience.pdf
on “Waymo One is now open to everyone in San Francisco”Submitted Benoit Mandelbrot, 1924-2010 as a story · 17 points
HN discussionWhile I agree with the sentiment, Rolf Dobelli himself is a plagiarist. This whole reasoning is basically stolen from Nassim Taleb. http://fooledbyrandomness.com/dobelli.htm http://blog.chabris.com/2013/09/similarities-between-rolf-do... EDIT: For another take on not reading the news, see http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/hatethenews
Comment linking /dobelli.htm
on “News is bad for you”Submitted Understanding is a Poor Substitute for Convexity (2012) [pdf] as a story · 14 points
HN discussionThe risks from unknown unknowns are even worse with genetic engineering in crops, due to the inevitability of hypothetical "harmful to humans genes" propagating from one population to others by pollination. The Precautionary Principle (with Application to the Genetic Modification of Organisms) https://www.fooledbyrandomness.com/pp2.pdf
Comment linking /pp2.pdf
on “Gut microbe linked to depression in large health study”Submitted Principles for a Black Swan-Proof World (.PDF) as a story · 12 points
HN discussionI think you need to familiarize yourself with the precautionary principle, since i believe it applies here PP Paper : https://fooledbyrandomness.com/pp2.pdf
Comment linking /pp2.pdf
on “US will ban cancer-linked Red Dye No. 3 in cereal and other foods”Submitted Prologue to Nassim Taleb's new book as a story · 9 points
HN discussionNassim Taleb has been very vocal against GMOs. Here's a summary of his beliefs. http://www.fooledbyrandomness.com/FictionAndFacts3.pdf
Comment linking /FictionAndFacts3.pdf
on “We’re Scientists, Moms, And We Avoid Non-GMO Products”- rg · 2010-01-12
Submitted Why I Do All This Walking ... (by Nassim Taleb) as a story · 9 points
HN discussion more supplementary readings: "SILENT RISK :NASSIM NICHOLAS TALEB" ( pdf ) http://www.fooledbyrandomness.com/SilentRisk.pdf and "Taleb: The Intellectual Yet Idiot" https://medium.com/incerto/the-intellectual-yet-idiot-13211e...
Comment linking /SilentRisk.pdf
on “Calling bullshit”Submitted Bitcoin, Currencies, and Bubbles [pdf] as a story · 6 points
HN discussionThought this was appropriate: http://fooledbyrandomness.com/equality.pdf
Comment linking /equality.pdf
on “Tesla Announces $2B Public Offering to Accelerate Model 3 Ramp Up”Submitted How Large the N? – Nassim Nicholas Taleb – PDF as a story · 6 points
HN discussionCase in point: Nassim Taleb, The Most Intolerant Wins: The Dominance of the Stubborn Minority http://fooledbyrandomness.com/minority.pdf
Comment linking /minority.pdf
on “Most violence in the world is motivated by moral sentiments”Submitted Nassim Taleb: Understanding is a poor substitute for convexity [pdf] as a story · 6 points
HN discussion
