Taleb Procrustes aphorisms (Part II)

Watch me answer a reader question at the end of this post: why there’s no such thing as female logic, why we don’t need more women working on Wall Street. This is good. And since we’re talking about Taleb today, ask yourself: How antifragile are You ?

I’m selectively posting 20 more aphorisms today from Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s Bed of Procrustes. These are so rich in meaning that we are advised not to ponder on more than four at a time.

1. “Life is about early detection of the reversal point beyond which your own belongings (say, a house, country house, car, or business) start owning you. I’ll add there’s a reversal point with your wife, also. At what point the wife owns you ?”

2. “The most important aspect of fasting is that you feel deep, undirected gratitude when you break the fast.” Try it. Fasting is good stuff. Then try fasting on stuff other than food as well. Live one week without your car. Live one week without your wife (can take up residence at relatives, second home a hotel room, and have no contact with the wifey). Fasting is a wonderful thing. Detox often.

3. “A writer told me, ‘I didn’t get anything done today.’ Answer: try to do nothing. The best way to have only good days is to not aim at getting anything done. Actually almost everything I’ve written that has survived was written when I didn’t try to get anything done.”

4. “If you don’t feel that you haven’t read enough, you haven’t read enough.”

5. ” God created Monte Carlo and similar places so extremely rich people would come experience extreme envy.” Yes, but casinos are routinely filled with poor people walking out poorer. Nevertheless, I do envy the rich or the “whales” as they call them. They don’t have money worries like I do. That’s why I envy the rich.

6. ” It is very difficult to argue with salaried people that the simple can be important and the important can be simple.”

7. ” Never rid anyone of an illusion unless you can replace it in his mind with another illusion.” I’m going to quote this in my book, ‘How to get your boss job.”

8. “Studying neurobiology to understand humans is like studying ink to understand literature.”

9. ” Every angel is an asshole somewhere.”

10. ” Every asshole is an angel somewhere.” Ok, these two taken together makes you wanna ask the question: Are there more assholes than angels, or vice-versa ? Even number of assholes to angels ?

11. “For social mobility to work, it needs to be a two-way highway, with a large number of pre-rich and an almost as large one of post-rich.” A-ha, got you, democracy ! Why democracy is bullshit.

12. ” It is a great compliment for an honest person to be mistaken for a crook by a crook.”

13. ” It is quite a predicament to be both evil and risk-averse.” When will people stop being pussies and be more like the market ? Like in IDGF.

14. ” Never call someone an imbecile (or a fucking idiot) unless he causes harm to others/system; there must be a moral dimension to insults.”

15. ” Trust those who are greedy for money a thousand times more than those who are greedy for credentials.” Boy, this one popped right at me, since I worked with bigwigs and UHNWIs. I’m sorry Taleb, I disagree with you here. I understand those that hunt for credentials are big idiots, however, those credentials, whatever they may be: Harvard degree, varsity champ, black belt in Shittsu, is what enabled them to get the money. Taleb, however brilliant he is, is still an academic. The world of business has a fondness for credentials that’s literally insatiable: Got two medals, good. How about a third one ? Oh, no, this one is better, he’s got 8 medals. Olympians are seen like Gods on Wall Street. I’m thinking of getting a plaque in a gold frame and introduce it my boss: GOLD AWARD IN THE FIELD OF EXCELLENCE. See how I get that promotion !

16. “The trick in life (and risk management) is to have as much respect for experience before one acquires said experience, as one would after.”

17. “The only valid political system is one that can handle an imbecile in power without suffering from it.” Interesting times we live now.

18. ” To understand how something works, figure out how to break it.” Well, how does entropy do such a great job ?

19. ” Just as eating cow meat doesn’t turn you into a cow, studying philosophy doesn’t make you wiser.” I disagree with Taleb for the second time today.

20. ” People like to eat fish by the water even if the fish was caught far away and transported by trucks.” Count me in, bud, I want fresh fish shipped in from Japan any day.

There seem to be too many aphorisms in one (second) setting, I’m going to have to do at least one more of these.

Remember, Be Antifragile !

Q: [Steve says] Max, why is that society made a king out of Hugh Hefner while it punishes men like Harvey Weinstein ? I know what Weinstein did wrong, but what did Hefner do right ? What levels Hefner pushed  ?

A: Hugh Hefner was in many ways the most skilled pimp in the world. Of course, there are ‘000s of them in the world now that he’s gone. He elevated women to the status of superstars. Hefner pandered to women’s hypergamy drive by celebrating their beauty. In fact, he made an industry out of it. He stoked women’s egos like never before. He made a God -a false God- from women. I can almost picture Hefner, from the corporate background that I have: “Honey, we can get you up and running in no time !” “You’re the most wonderful thing since sliced bread.”. “You’re gonna be worth millions.”

By contrast, someone like Weinstein never stroked women’s egos. Weinstein thought he “made a deal”, in men’s logic: I’ll do this for you, and you do that for me. Quid pro quo. “Fair”. Women, however, don’t accept this kind of bargain. Their needs must come first. We live in a gynocentric society that mandates women’s needs as being the most important thing there is. So, for example, if Weinstein said: I’ll give you an island [a country, whatever] for a blowjob. That wouldn’t have worked either, because a woman always puts herself above a a man. Men’s logic doesn’t work with women. “I’ll give you a stable life in exchange for marriage.” Same thing. Does not work.

Women resent legalizing prostitution, first because of it giving up long term benefits for short term benefits thus unmasking the game, but also for the same thing as above. Prostitution is the male logic of an even “equitable” exchange. The consideration and the needs of one party should be equal to the consideration and needs of the counterparty. No one comes a day later and says: You know what, my needs were greater than yours.

You don’t make a deal, as you understand it, with women. You’re in their debt forever.

Of course, Weinstein is a beta male and a dope. What else is new ? In venture capital, women are just starting to come out with sexual harassment allegations: RawScience founder Keri Kukral: “women approached by founding partners of Draper Fisher Jurvetson should be careful. Predatory behavior is rampant.”

The kind of treatment Harvey Weinstein and others should have gotten but never got is called the redpill, aka, the truth. Watch those women putting Weinstein in the poorhouse.

If you had enough #redpill for the day, let me know.