taleb
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une 7, 2013 6:33 pm
The Inventory: NassimNicholas Taleb
Who is my mentor? I have inverse mentors: people I learnt to not imitate,’
says the scholar and philosopher
assim Nicholas Taleb, 53, is distinguished
professor of risk engineering at New York
University’s Polytechnic Institute. Following acareer in finance, he is now the best-selling
author of books that include The Black Swan
and Antifragile .
. .
What was your childhood or earliest ambition?
was utopian. I found adults and adulthoodundamentally corrupt, self-serving and unclear. I still
do but I now find the utopian even more harmful.
Public school or state school? University or
straight into work?
French lycée, whatever that means. University but
argely autodidact as almost never attended classes.
Universit y is a good place to drink, make friends and
discuss books, nothing else. But the education one gets
here is way too commoditised.
Who was or still is your mentor?
My maternal aunt and paternal grand-uncle. They understand collective wisdom, the type of
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Fitness regime: Heavy weights
If you had a coat of arms,what would be on it?
A lion as a model of death
before submission.
mistakes one may regret as opposed to good mistakes. I also have inverse mentors: people I learnt
o not imitate.
How physically fit are you?
lift heavy weights and sprint but I am so bad at it that I develop severe injuries. Like now.
mbition or talent: which matters more to
success?
Both concepts are modernist nonsense. Success is
about honour, feeling morally calibrated, absence of
hame, not what some newspaper defines from an
external metric.
How politically committed are you?
ndependent, with a Burkean bent, anti-centralised
tate, anti-large corporations, anti-debt – so largely localist, pro-city states and green.
Do you consider your carbon footprint?
ndeed. I drive a hybrid, moving into an electric car. I only drink tap water, never consume food
hat’s travelled. Have been moving many lectures to teleconferencing.
Do you have more than one home?
Not really, one in the US plus a shared family house in Lebanon. I
prefer hotel rooms.
In what place are you happiest?
It is atmosphere-dependent. I am happy everywhere except in places
where I see glitz and rich farts. I am happiest in Brooklyn, where theconcentration of rich farts is minimal.
What would you like to own that you don’t currently
possess?
Nothing.
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Happiest: in Brooklyn
What’s your biggest extravagance?
Books, books and books.
What ambitions do you still have?
To complete a multi-volume mathematical expression of the ideas of the more philosophical works
with rigorous derivations and proofs. Volume one is complete.
What drives you on?
want to put my works under one title, Incerto, in 10 volumes – six philosophical and four
mathematical – so people can grasp it all as a single piece.
What is the greatest achievement of your lifeso far?
’ve learnt to never compromise.
What has been your greatest disappointment?
That I am unable to destroy the economics
establishment, the press.
f your 20-year-old self could see you now,
what would he think?
That I am not ashamed to be judged by my 20-year-old self. I swerved on occasion but ultimately
tayed in line with what he wanted me to be.
f you lost everything tomorrow, what would you do?
This is the ethos of Antifragile: thinking about such an event every day so you reduce fragility toadverse events. I’ve lived in preparation for that possibility. Plan B is to move to college dorms. But
nothing would be more devastating than reduced access to a technical library.
Do you believe in assisted suicide?
believe in a stoic approach to suicide as one ends life on one’s own terms.
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You need to control destiny. I did not come to this world to live for ever. Make
oom for others.
f you had to rate your satisfaction with your life so far, out of 10,
what would you score?
Life is not about self-satisfaction but the satisfaction of a sense of duty. It is allor nothing. Nine out of 10 would be total failure.
------------------------------------------
Antifragile’, by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, is published in paperback by
Penguin, £8.99