Lessons of 2019:
1) Correlation isn't close to what you think it actually is.
2) Most people don't know statistics let alone probability.
3) It's not that field is lacking earnest students. It's that the field is taught wrong all around.
4) A second rate statistician is deadly
@EricRWeinstein
Because when you buy heart and soul into the concept of “vote blue no matter who” you’ve devalued your worth to the point where they have rub your face in it.
I was wondering why
@nntaleb
is under so much noisy baseless attacks. Then it hit me. He studies the root of all fields in life. Risk under uncertainty. His works touch on medicine, politics, economics, business, health, nutrition, entrepreneurship, information theory.
5) If you don't know stats, it's best to use your emotional intuition to disbelieve whatever the social scientist is pushing.
6) They take nature and compartmentalize it into mini models. The models are wrong.
7) They project the model back on to reality with confidence.
8) Reality laughs. The modellers keep on modelling.
9) Science is hard because it won't conform to your wishes, desires, equations, data sets, etc.
10) Data collected is a snapshot of the past. Not a predictor of the future. It almost always excludes quiet but important info.
It’s funny. I know 15 farmers. I know too many people with PhDs. The farmer’s conversations are always so much more interesting. Also, I’ve tried bullshiting a farmer, doesn’t work. I’ve bullshit PhDs and they buy it. 🤷♂️
So mom had low iron for 15 months. Normal is 115. Her blood work showed it was 79. Below 75 you need blood transfusions. Switched her on to beef which she hasn’t eaten for decades. Doctor called new results? 121.
cc:
@SBakerMD
Doc says to me I don’t know what’s happening? 🤷♂️
Picture this. You're standing at the beach. You see the tides roll out. You see all the animals running inland. You have two options. Follow the animals, or sit there until the Tsunami appears so your need for data can be satisfied.
friendly reminder in times of uncertainty and misinformation: anecdotes are not data. (good) data is carefully measured and collected information based on a range of subject-dependent factors, including, but not limited to, controlled variables, meta-analysis, and randomization
11) Fat tail events start with single data points. Recall how Steve Jobs went to Intel and asked for a chip for the new iPhone at the time. They laughed because their MBAs said there was no data to back the potential market for it.
12) Since data can't be used directly to make calls one way or another, what should one do? Experiment and iterate with tight feedback loops tied to reality.
13) As time passes, assumptions get burned.
14) Don't buy into things that will have to change in time.
“When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.” — Mark Twain
If you wanna know why the
@WHO
should be decommissioned it's pretty simple. They have ONE major responsibility. Corona started on Nov. 17, 2019. Wuhan lockdown began Jan 23rd, 2020. It took till March 11th for the WHO to declare it a pandemic.
Basically Neil would be burning his colleagues at the stake because the scientific consensus was that the earth was flat. Neil was, is and always will be a shill. His mask just fell off completely here. FYI, science has nothing to do with consensus. Neither does truth.
Neil deGrasse Tyson on Why Certain Medical Experts Were Silenced During the COVID Pandemic
"I'm not interested in medical pedigree. I'm interested in medical consensus and scientific consensus...The individual scientist does not matter."
@delbigtree
@neiltyson
@HighWireTalk
People fundamentally confuse risk with uncertainty. Risk is like playing Russian roulette. The odds can be calculated. Uncertainty is having no clue if the guy next to you has coronavirus and how getting infected by it will impact you and your family.
You don’t need a PhD for it
Every day asymmetries. The harder the choices you make early the more options you'll have later.
The easier the choices you make earlier, the fewer the options you'll have later.
Applies to debt, and lock downs.
15) Buy into things that have been time tested with very few assumptions built-in.
16) If something seems stupid, it's because your assumptions about its fundamentals are wrong.
17) Correlation in fields that are normally distributed is spurious.
18) If the field is fat tailed, correlation is insanely out of whack. It will cause you to misjudge the problem by a factor of 100-1000. Sometimes even more.
It takes a lot for me to co-sign anything. This I will co-sign instantly. Notice the intense intellectual capacity channeled through the guard rails of ethical and moral courage, informed by the mistakes of 9/11 and Iraq wars.
@RetsefL
Retsef,
You ask: "Hamas/Iran initiated barbaric terror attack to harm Israel & promote their Jiahd agenda. Agree?"
Answer: Of course, with the exception that I don't know if Iran initiated/funded/aided this act, or merely blessed it. They are different violations, and the
There's a great idea about statistics I picked up on from
@nntaleb
over the years. Statistics are about populations. Decisions are about individuals. Here's a person conflating those two concepts rather poorly. Risk profiles and payoff spaces differ DRASTICALLY in each sphere.
The vaccine is safe and effective, there's this—as far as I can tell—largely unnecessary 2-day delay at a time when 3,000 people are dying a day. I think a lot of presidents, including President-Elect Biden, would try to put some pressure on people to expedite that process.
When you're smart you try to prove to everyone in the room how smart you are. When you become wise, you prove to them how smart they are. The latter gets you cooperation.
Ok. Hospital again about to get mom discharged. She has No cancer! It feels awkward to want to celebrate while there’s a plague going on. But I’ll take the wins and enjoy when I can. 🥳🥳🥳🥳
Thank you all for the thoughts and prayers.
What is/isn't complexity science? To find out, we went and found the best in the world at explaining it in practical terms.
@ember_sadat
and I would you to listen to
#RiskyConversations
with the one and only
@normonics
Enjoy,
Now is the perfect time to let doctors and nurses with unrecognized degrees from other countries be of service since they can’t drive cabs anymore anyway.
This is why it doesn't pay to prevent problems only to cure them after. A person protected by your preventative measures won't appreciate them. This is why whenever I see a soldier, I ALWAYS thank them for their service.
MYTH: "Experts are right". Scientists (Harvard) initially thought worldwide deaths could be as high as 140,000,00 people. What?? So clearly wrong and yet we shut down the entire world of economy which has lead to tragic situations for 10s of millions of people. (13/14)
Wartime:
Nassim mentioned how risk is like smacking the bottom of a ketchup bottle and not seeing anything until the whole table is covered because of exponential ketchup. People are living it and still can’t see it.
Goes to show education and titles behind your name doesn’t mean a damn thing. Eugene, would you rather be stuck on a flight with 500 smokers or one potential coronavirus carrier? Do you understand potential for run away harm? Individual agency? 🤦♂️
In the time it took almost 500 people to die from the coronavirus since it first emerged, more than 1.1 million died from tobacco and more than 107,000 died from the flu. But 330 people did die from lightning strikes so the coronavirus is definitely more dangerous than lightning.
When you hear someone dismissively reject your conservative approach to corona because of the 2% death rate. Don't get mad, tell them you have 100 smarties, 2 of them will kill them you don't know which two. Shake the box and ask them to eat one and give one to their kid.
To the cool kids using
#OkBoomer
, you do realize you’re building a cage that you’ll be walked into eventually right? You don’t get to stay young forever. Your level of disrespect for your current elders will pale in comparison to what you will experience. Just sayin...
Merry Christmas isn’t exclusionary. It says I am are invited to celebrate your holiday with you. Just as absurd as telling Muslims / Hindus happy Holidays for Eid / Diwali. I am not Christian, but I know and feel the holiday spirit. Thanks for INCLUDING me in it.
Experts and the real deal, someone I’m proud to call my friend/brother
@normonics
along with
@nntaleb
What’s happened over the past few days is nothing short of miraculous. Joe put his ass on the line & went on to correctly prove the right course of action on this global virus
The very best skill in life to develop is the ability to recognize what is a waste of your time and energy and to immediately disengage from it without the slightest hesitation.
People who accept mediocrity get mad at those who even dare mighty things. Nassim is basically asking you to not be a couch potato mocking the Olympian who didn’t medal on tv.
Some books are so good, they change the way you look at life. As you read the words, a small ripple in the pond of your claimed source of truth slowly builds up into a tsunami as you feel the neuronal re-wiring take place, the surge of chemical reactions,
As someone who knows what communists do (take your uncle away in the night and leave trace of him) there’s a particular tactic I want you to notice. They weaponize a word so it becomes a zero. All your good works multiplied by zero? Divide and conquer works, but divide by 0?
The way I introduce Nassim to people is I say buy the Incerto volume and if you don’t like it, I’ll buy it off you.
That’s how you convince someone to take a risk. Very few people who’ve never heard of someone would drop $200+ on a series of books, until you give them a reason.
A friend’s company just told me they learned their lesson from 08. Paid off all debts over the past 12 years. They have $10 million in cash and no debts. That’s how you run a business. cc:
@ember_sadat
This is a special Afghan dish called Shola. It’s basically rice cooked with ALL the veggies and herbs you can find. Toss in chick peas and beans into the mix. Served with more veggies, fresh peppers, onions and steak pan seared and chopped.
When Nassim says become a king before becoming a philosopher he says so because becoming a king is action based. Becoming a philosopher is just uttering words. Actions > words. Words that come after actions are valuable because you iron your shirt AFTER you wash it.
Things are tough, but I wanted to share some good news. Mom was being tested for 3 different cancers. This morning got verification that the third & final case is also negative. I am beyond lucky & grateful. A full time job. A side business, and healthy family. Will pay it 4word
Look back and see fortune. I owe 99.999% of all my success to just straight up pure luck. As much as I can claim to be hard working, or smart or whatever, I connect the dots and see the pattern emerge. I am finite being in an infinite universe and the universe has been kind. 🙏
When they analyzed the edited embryos and compared them to ones that hadn’t been edited, they found something troubling: Around half of the edited embryos contained major unintended edits.
Here is an example of contrarian economic thinking done by actual businesses run by wise people. "Their No. 1 priority is carrying on,” he added. “Each generation is like a runner in a relay race. What’s important is passing the baton.” cc:
@nntaleb
3 types of people:
1) He who makes linear decisions in the face of nonlinear conditions creating systemic risk.
2) He who sleeps the day away drunk but doesn't harm others with their bad decisions.
3) People who can't tell which of these people is better for humanity.
Even a 73 year old Mike would wreck your soul in a ring. For those can’t fathom it just remember, he’s one of those 1 in 7 billion types. Ultra gifted. Vicious striker. A machine.
Never in human history have we been this fragile. 1 idiot has the power to cost billions to society. Image courtesy of my childhood brother and first and best workout partner
@TyroneETB
Business surprise:
Show up with integrity.
Show up with empathy.
Show up with charm.
Your competition shows up with lies, selfishness, and greed.
Arbitrage the difference.
People are so heavily mistreated that it’s you’ll be like an oxygen mask to a drowning man.
There’s a significant majority of immigrants that escaped countries infatuated with implementing these ideas. Trust us, it never goes the way you think it does. Broken eggs, no omelettes, just broken eggs.
Scents and your advantage: Every animal on the planet uses scent to determine if something is healthy (mate) and good enough to eat ( avoiding rotten food). That's why we have such a deep emotionally driven reaction to smell.
My friend pouring me homemade lemonade:
Her: “Ice?”
Me: “yes please.”
Her: “crushed or whole”?
Me: “I prefer crushed ice. Hard to enjoy a cool drink when your ice has hopes and dreams.”
Her: “why can’t you be normal?”
Me: “if I was, would you even bother being friends?”
Just in case y’all need a gentle reminder. Nassim’s idea of how highways can handle traffic up to a point before it becomes a nightmare is perfectly applicable to hospitals and
#coronavirus
patients.
#AntiFragile
I know it’s true. I just had to deal with it 2 days ago. 🤷♂️
Cheap vs frugal:
The frugal person respects their own labour and thus refrains from spending. The cheap person disrespects everyone’s labour and thus refrains from spending.
I hate cheap people. In my 37 years on earth, never met a cheapskate that I liked.
Friends, at a time like this please remember what the most important thing you can do is. Please check in on celebrities, like, retweet, and reply to them. They aren't getting the usual amount of attention they need and it's really not fair.
2019:
Helped bring down a Ponzi scheme.
Got threatened with goons.
Gave a platform to some of the smartest people I know.
Got mom through heart surgery.
Helped 7 people off sugar.
Prevented 1 child bride marriage.
Shared insights.
Learned. Coded. Lifted
Still here...goons.
A mini lesson by
@nntaleb
I finally understand it enough to explain it. A batter in baseball has a hitting average from his past. His next up at bat isn’t informed by his average but his next performance will update the average. avg = past. Next at bat = probability about future