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The writing style of this article strikes a tone that seems overly eager to place an eloquent vocabulary on display. Hey guys! Look at all the big, big wor

The writing style of this article strikes a tone that seems overly eager to place an eloquent vocabulary on display. Hey guys! Look at all the big, big words I can use! Don’t I sound smart??? Seriously. It’s like they wrote, and proof read the original draft, then performed a search/replace for any polysyllabic synonym they could opportunistically inject. Why do they need to sound smart? Is it really because they know they’ve got nothing to say? Is this an SAT reading comprehension test? You could sum up the sentiment with an anaology to paraphrase the concept: “defensive programming is no replacement for accomplished programming skill” (to borrow a concept comparable to investing) Big words, small mind.

jimnotgym 8y ago
I saw Taleb's name at the top and stopped reading. Can we start a thing that we put Taleb's name in brackets at the end of a post title (Like NSFW) so I don't have to be sick in my mouth? It is statistically provable that Taleb has the world's biggest ego. I have no time for his rampant mysogyny. I know he might say clever stuff, but it's not worth feeling unclean for.
- small_mind 8y ago
  To further boil down what the article tries to distill, but never explicitly states as a revealed conclusion: Success requires agency. The positive outcomes must be recognized and selected for, to produce gains. Correct. We live in a world where sentient intelligence persists upon a substrate of inert, newtonian determinism. Life, itself, stands bound by gravity, upon a rock floating in space. So where’s the investment tactics? Meanwhile, mysogyny as a personality flaw of the author would not invalidate the merit of any ideas expressed into a vacuum devoid of mysogyny. As adults, individuals should be capable of reading and digesting a non-inflamatory article, if its ideas have merit, and it doesn’t seek emotional agitation. You should be able to read an article, and ignore the name of the author. Ask yourself: If it were the same article written under a pseudonym, could it still be found valuable?
  - jimnotgym 8y ago
    That sounds so logical, but the truth is that reputation is a useful time saver. I don't have time to read the vast majority of what is written in the world, why should I make time to read stuff written by someone who I know is an arrogant ass?
  - api 8y ago
    If that's it, it's not exactly a novel idea. Are there actually people who argue that brute trial and error with nothing else in play can yield structured knowledge? Note that biological evolution doesn't count because it is not mere trial and error.
- naasking 8y ago
  I'm curious why you think Taleb is a misogynist. A quick Google didn't turn up anything other than a few posts of his where mentions the word. He seems like an abrasive ass in general, but he's only a misogynist if he's more of an abrasive ass to women than men.
  - jimnotgym 8y ago
    Have a look out for his appalling attack on renowned clacissist Dame Mary Beard. Actually I suggest you don't.
    - naasking 8y ago
      I just read Pagliucci's summary of the exchange [1]. Taleb's disdain for academics is well known, particularly the humanities, and that seems on full display here. I don't see anything specifically misogynistic though. Did Pagliucci simply not quote what you're referring to? Edit: by which I mean, what definitively demonstrates his misogyny as opposed to a gender neutral disdain for historians in general? He's definitely the abrasive ass I described earlier, but misogynist doesn't seem warranted, and it's a label that's thrown around far too freely these days. [1] https://iainews.iai.tv/articles/beard-nassem-taleb-twitter-feud-and-dangers-of-scientism-auid-868 https://iainews.iai.tv/articles/beard-nassem-taleb-twitter-f...
      - jimnotgym 8y ago
        It is a fair question I suppose. I watched the incident at the time and I felt Taleb was being a misogynist yes. However I am not prepared to go trawling through the bile again to find specific quotes. I acknowledge that there is a chance I am remembering it incorrectly. Lots of people who joined in his appalling baiting were certainly openly misogynist in their language, and maybe I am accusing him of being guilty-by-association. However perhaps joint-enterprise is a fair stick to beat him with, he certainly and very deliberately tries to get his fan club to wade in on social media. Maybe people who do this bear some responsibility for what their followers inevitably say? The further complication is that Dame Professor Mary Beard is an outspoken feminist, and this has caused her to receive more than her fair share of misogynist abuse both on social and mainstream media (incidentally her book Women and Power is very readable and I see now in paper-back). Therefore it could be that I was showing my prejudice in assuming that a man attacking Mary Beard was automatically misogynist. Then I think to myself that a man who has no credentials at all in that field attacking a renowned person in that field (from one of the worlds great institutions) in such a vile way must have some special reason to do so. I guess the final thing is that he did indeed accuse her of having "used feminist cover" (Damn I said I wasn't going to look up quotes). What he seemed to be saying is that she was trying to be exempt from criticism because she was a feminist. I would actually say that that was very misogynist thing to say. It reminds me of the people who try and perpetuate racial slurs an say things like, 'you can't even criticise them for (insert racist trope) for fear of being called racist'. What is worse, is I came out thinking that he was wrong, and badly wrong at that, but was trying to bully his view to the forefront. But as you can see from reading what I wrote, I am not a scholar of the humanities at all. It is still my personal opinion that he is a misogynist bully, and his ego is so big that it compromises his objectivity. > Did Pagliucci simply not quote what you're referring to? Before I finally posted I read the article you linked, I think you have missed this bit "It isn’t because of the not-so-subtle sexist undertone (not just of Taleb’s, but of many of his Twitter-based supporters)" So indeed Pagliucci does mention it. BTW, I predicted the financial crisis of 2008 too. I say that as it seems to be Taleb's main claim to fame. I was wrong about what the trigger would be, but what I identified as a potential cause certainly helped it spread (mind you I could have changed that around when I wrote my book). But then so did my dad, and a plumber I remember talking to at the time. I heard mainstream radio shows about it. In fact it only seemed to be people who were in the financial game who couldn't see it. So what? We could just have easily been wrong.
- api 8y ago
  I dunno. An ego size comparison between Taleb and Wolfram would be pretty epic. Get both in a room and the resulting ego singularity could damage local space-time.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
ludston 8y ago
Or, he has over a long time tricked himself into thinking in that language style and otherwise has trouble (or at least no desire for) expressing himself otherwise. I might be taking bait here. I guess I take umbradge at the post I am replying to because it has insults in it, which is not so pleasant. Maybe it's just the hypocrisy, as its language is also verbose. To paraphrase: > The writing style of this article strikes a tone that seems overly eager to place an eloquent vocabulary on display. "This article uses too many big words" > You could sum up the sentiment with an anaology to paraphrase the concept: “defensive programming is no replacement for accomplished programming skill” (to borrow a concept comparable to investing) "You could sum up his article as: 'following best practices won't replace programming skill'" You might argue that paraphrasing like I have detracts meaning but I'm sure the original author of the article would say that too.
dang 8y ago
This comment breaks the site guidelines, which ask: "Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something." Could you please not create accounts to break the guidelines with? https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

jimnotgym 8y ago

I saw Taleb's name at the top and stopped reading. Can we start a thing that we put Taleb's name in brackets at the end of a post title (Like NSFW) so I don't have to be sick in my mouth? It is statistically provable that Taleb has the world's biggest ego. I have no time for his rampant mysogyny. I know he might say clever stuff, but it's not worth feeling unclean for.

small_mind 8y ago
To further boil down what the article tries to distill, but never explicitly states as a revealed conclusion: Success requires agency. The positive outcomes must be recognized and selected for, to produce gains. Correct. We live in a world where sentient intelligence persists upon a substrate of inert, newtonian determinism. Life, itself, stands bound by gravity, upon a rock floating in space. So where’s the investment tactics? Meanwhile, mysogyny as a personality flaw of the author would not invalidate the merit of any ideas expressed into a vacuum devoid of mysogyny. As adults, individuals should be capable of reading and digesting a non-inflamatory article, if its ideas have merit, and it doesn’t seek emotional agitation. You should be able to read an article, and ignore the name of the author. Ask yourself: If it were the same article written under a pseudonym, could it still be found valuable?
- jimnotgym 8y ago
  That sounds so logical, but the truth is that reputation is a useful time saver. I don't have time to read the vast majority of what is written in the world, why should I make time to read stuff written by someone who I know is an arrogant ass?
- api 8y ago
  If that's it, it's not exactly a novel idea. Are there actually people who argue that brute trial and error with nothing else in play can yield structured knowledge? Note that biological evolution doesn't count because it is not mere trial and error.
naasking 8y ago
I'm curious why you think Taleb is a misogynist. A quick Google didn't turn up anything other than a few posts of his where mentions the word. He seems like an abrasive ass in general, but he's only a misogynist if he's more of an abrasive ass to women than men.
- jimnotgym 8y ago
  Have a look out for his appalling attack on renowned clacissist Dame Mary Beard. Actually I suggest you don't.
  - naasking 8y ago
    I just read Pagliucci's summary of the exchange [1]. Taleb's disdain for academics is well known, particularly the humanities, and that seems on full display here. I don't see anything specifically misogynistic though. Did Pagliucci simply not quote what you're referring to? Edit: by which I mean, what definitively demonstrates his misogyny as opposed to a gender neutral disdain for historians in general? He's definitely the abrasive ass I described earlier, but misogynist doesn't seem warranted, and it's a label that's thrown around far too freely these days. [1] https://iainews.iai.tv/articles/beard-nassem-taleb-twitter-feud-and-dangers-of-scientism-auid-868 https://iainews.iai.tv/articles/beard-nassem-taleb-twitter-f...
    - jimnotgym 8y ago
      It is a fair question I suppose. I watched the incident at the time and I felt Taleb was being a misogynist yes. However I am not prepared to go trawling through the bile again to find specific quotes. I acknowledge that there is a chance I am remembering it incorrectly. Lots of people who joined in his appalling baiting were certainly openly misogynist in their language, and maybe I am accusing him of being guilty-by-association. However perhaps joint-enterprise is a fair stick to beat him with, he certainly and very deliberately tries to get his fan club to wade in on social media. Maybe people who do this bear some responsibility for what their followers inevitably say? The further complication is that Dame Professor Mary Beard is an outspoken feminist, and this has caused her to receive more than her fair share of misogynist abuse both on social and mainstream media (incidentally her book Women and Power is very readable and I see now in paper-back). Therefore it could be that I was showing my prejudice in assuming that a man attacking Mary Beard was automatically misogynist. Then I think to myself that a man who has no credentials at all in that field attacking a renowned person in that field (from one of the worlds great institutions) in such a vile way must have some special reason to do so. I guess the final thing is that he did indeed accuse her of having "used feminist cover" (Damn I said I wasn't going to look up quotes). What he seemed to be saying is that she was trying to be exempt from criticism because she was a feminist. I would actually say that that was very misogynist thing to say. It reminds me of the people who try and perpetuate racial slurs an say things like, 'you can't even criticise them for (insert racist trope) for fear of being called racist'. What is worse, is I came out thinking that he was wrong, and badly wrong at that, but was trying to bully his view to the forefront. But as you can see from reading what I wrote, I am not a scholar of the humanities at all. It is still my personal opinion that he is a misogynist bully, and his ego is so big that it compromises his objectivity. > Did Pagliucci simply not quote what you're referring to? Before I finally posted I read the article you linked, I think you have missed this bit "It isn’t because of the not-so-subtle sexist undertone (not just of Taleb’s, but of many of his Twitter-based supporters)" So indeed Pagliucci does mention it. BTW, I predicted the financial crisis of 2008 too. I say that as it seems to be Taleb's main claim to fame. I was wrong about what the trigger would be, but what I identified as a potential cause certainly helped it spread (mind you I could have changed that around when I wrote my book). But then so did my dad, and a plumber I remember talking to at the time. I heard mainstream radio shows about it. In fact it only seemed to be people who were in the financial game who couldn't see it. So what? We could just have easily been wrong.
api 8y ago
I dunno. An ego size comparison between Taleb and Wolfram would be pretty epic. Get both in a room and the resulting ego singularity could damage local space-time.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]

ludston 8y ago

Or, he has over a long time tricked himself into thinking in that language style and otherwise has trouble (or at least no desire for) expressing himself otherwise. I might be taking bait here. I guess I take umbradge at the post I am replying to because it has insults in it, which is not so pleasant. Maybe it's just the hypocrisy, as its language is also verbose. To paraphrase: > The writing style of this article strikes a tone that seems overly eager to place an eloquent vocabulary on display. "This article uses too many big words" > You could sum up the sentiment with an anaology to paraphrase the concept: “defensive programming is no replacement for accomplished programming skill” (to borrow a concept comparable to investing) "You could sum up his article as: 'following best practices won't replace programming skill'" You might argue that paraphrasing like I have detracts meaning but I'm sure the original author of the article would say that too.

dang 8y ago

This comment breaks the site guidelines, which ask: "Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something." Could you please not create accounts to break the guidelines with? https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html