I'm tempted to quote far more than fair use from this Times Online article about Nassim Nicholas Taleb. But that's why God made hyperlinks, so go read it and save me the cut and paste.Taleb articulates several ideas that only flitted through my consciousness previously, and you always pay attention to people who are saying what you already sort of believed anyway. The gist: You can't know exactly what it is that you don't know, so there's no point in acting like you comprehend what's happening in the universe. Be humble enough to accept your potentially vast ignorance, even (especially) in areas where you are considered expert.
His articulation also leads me to weigh his ideas that I hadn't considered before though, which is the real exciting part. New ideas are practically currency here in the future.
Aside: Why are so many noteworthy nonfiction writers economists these days?
Cherrypicked from Taleb's 10 Life Lessons:
1 Scepticism is effortful and costly. It is better to be sceptical about matters of large consequences, and be imperfect, foolish and human in the small and the aesthetic.
2 Go to parties. You can’t even start to know what you may find on the envelope of serendipity. If you suffer from agoraphobia, send colleagues.
3 It’s not a good idea to take a forecast from someone wearing a tie. If possible, tease people who take themselves and their knowledge too seriously.
5 Don’t disturb complicated systems that have been around for a very long time. We don’t understand their logic. Don’t pollute the planet. Leave it the way we found it, regardless of scientific ‘evidence’.
7 Avoid losers. If you hear someone use the words ‘impossible’, ‘never’, ‘too difficult’ too often, drop him or her from your social network. Never take ‘no’ for an answer (conversely, take most ‘yeses’ as ‘most probably’).
10 Answer e-mails from junior people before more senior ones. Junior people have further to go and tend to remember who slighted them.
0 Yorumlar