Let’s run a thought experiment:
Taleb is in an interview. He gets super mad at the question asked. Talks over his voice. Your neighborhood friends watching it say, “Man. I can’t believe this man wrote Incerto. Did you read his books? They are so good. But I can’t believe he can’t control himself publicly. He behaves rude, calls people names and keeps publishing shit no one gets. He makes good points but can’t even control himself. Probably writing about it is easy than actually living it.”
NF 2: Ohh yeah. You are not kidding dude. I am just going over his Twitter feed. Dude definitely seems to be having anger issues.
NF1: Yeah. He is like that. But his books are really good. I read Antifragile twice. I thought it was too long and he could have maybe finished it in 50–100 pages. He keeps saying the same thing over and over through out the book.
NF3: Probably we should just read one of those summaries. Will be done in 20 pages and you get the gist of it haha.
NF4: yeah and for me, I get more reading summaries than reading entire books. I tend to either get too busy and can’t get back to it soon enough and be lost where I am. With summaries you are done in 15 minutes or an hour and be done. You get what he says and you can see if he is right or not.
Incerto is not for these people. NF1 is the IYI, NF2, 3 & 4 is what’s wrong with society. Let me try to explain:
Who is a greater patriot? The one thumping his chests about how great their country is, painting his face or the one who doesn’t speak a word even during US Soccer Fifa World cup win but drives 4 hours one way to vote and regularly attends townhall meetings. Incerto is kind 2. Intellectual Yet Idiot is of the kind 1.
NF1 did not get Incerto and probably never gets it. Taleb is angry at the commentator’s ability to put extremely stupid but seemingly intelligent statements into small bites which could easily make people fall for it. He gets mad because people don’t understand that (it is difficult because of our human make up. The TV commentator is evoking emotions which clouds decision making) and they are not trying to listen and understand. He knows and lives probability. So he probably might have thought about it and decided “well, maybe I might yell if I get exposed to this but maybe some of them will listen and actually try to understand the argument. And some of them might have the power to do something about it or not. People should listen to the arguments. Let me try to make my point. The only downside is people who did not get Incerto and will probably never get it in their life time will start judging me for how I am supposed to behave on tv. Not that I give a damn but I wish I could cancel them. I did not write Incerto for these idiots.”
Try to understand what the commentator is actually saying and what Taleb is trying to say but the commentator completely changes it when he repeats it. Like some of you stopping at the word patriot thinking well, patriotism doesn’t mean anything. You never evolved beyond asking questions for asking sake. You will never get it because you are not trying to understand. Try to understand the arguments. Realize the Truth yourself.
