MICHEL PIREU: Taleb quotes are pointers to investors
Idiosyncratic author of Icerto began his career as a derivatives trader on Wall Street, but disapproves of many models promoted by the finance industry
Nassim Nicholas Taleb is the idiosyncratic author of Icerto — “a philosophical and practical essay on uncertainty” that consists of Skin in the Game, Antifragile, The Black Swan, Fooled by Randomness and The Bed of Procrustes — a (so far) five-volume in his words “investigation of opacity, luck, uncertainty, probability, human error, risk and decision making when we don’t understand the world”. Taleb began his career as a derivatives trader on Wall Street, but disapproves of many models promoted by the finance industry. Despite a Wharton MBA and a PhD from the University of Paris, he believes academia produces insights that are far removed from the realities of the world, prompting him to say things such as, “Probability is a liberal art; it is a child of scepticism, not a tool for people with calculators on their belts to satisfy their desire to produce fancy calculations and certainties.” Other Taleb quotes, with the reason they may be of particular significance to investors: “The...
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