10 tips van Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Schrijver Nassim Nicholas Taleb noemt zichzelf een sceptische empiricus. Hij is gefascineerd met fouten die mensen maken, en vooral de redenen waarom. Zijn boek The Black Swan is een aanrader.
Hier 10 tips van Taleb (via Times Online)
1. Scepticism is effortful and costly.
It is better to be sceptical about matters of large consequences, and be imperfect, foolish and human in the small and the aesthetic.2. Go to parties
You can’t even start to know what you may find on the envelope of serendipity. If you suffer from agoraphobia, send colleagues.3. It’s not a good idea to take a forecast from someone wearing a tie
If possible, tease people who take themselves and their knowledge too seriously.4. Wear your best for your execution and stand dignified
Your last recourse against randomness is how you act if you can’t control outcomes, you can control the elegance of your behaviour. You will always have the last word.5. Don’t disturb complicated systems that have been around for a very long time
We don’t understand their logic. Don’t pollute the planet. Leave it the way we found it, regardless of scientific ‘evidence’.6. Learn to fail with pride and do so fast and cleanly
Maximise trial and error by mastering the error part.7. Avoid losers
If you hear someone use the words ‘impossible’, ‘never’, ‘too difficult’ too often, drop him or her from your social network. Never take no for an answer (conversely, take most yeses as most probably).8. Don’t read newspapers for the news (just for the gossip and, of course, profiles of authors)
The best filter to know if the news matters is if you hear it in cafes, restaurants… or (again) parties.9. Hard work will get you a professorship or a BMW
You need both work and luck for a Booker, a Nobel or a private jet.10. Answer e-mails from junior people before more senior ones
Junior people have further to go and tend to remember who slighted them.