“It is my great hope someday, to see science and decision makers rediscover what the ancients have always known. Namely that our highest currency is respect.”
In this quote by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, he emphasizes the importance of respect as a fundamental principle in decision-making and scientific pursuits.
Taleb highlights the value of respecting not only individuals but also knowledge and wisdom passed down through generations. By acknowledging the wisdom of ancient civilizations, he urges contemporary society to reevaluate the metrics by which we measure success and importance. In a world often driven by competition and material gain, Taleb's words serve as a reminder of the enduring power of respect in shaping a more harmonious and sustainable future.
In current society, where rapid advancements in technology and science often overshadow age-old principles, the words of Nassim Nicholas Taleb ring true. The concept of respect, which has been valued by ancient civilizations for centuries, is more pertinent than ever in guiding our decisions and interactions. The wisdom embedded in this principle can serve as a compass in navigating the complexities of the modern world.
"It is my great hope someday, to see science and decision makers rediscover what the ancients have always known. Namely that our highest currency is respect." - Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Reflecting on this quote by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, consider the following questions:
“If there is something in nature you don't understand, odds are it makes sense in a deeper way that is beyond your understanding. So there is a logic to natural things that is much superior to our own. Just as there is a dichotomy in law: 'innocent until proven guilty' as opposed to 'guilty until proven innocent', let me express my rule as follows: what Mother Nature does is rigorous until proven otherwise; what humans and science do is flawed until proven otherwise.”
“Few understand that procrastination is our natural defense, letting things take care of themselves and exercise their antifragility; it results from some ecological or naturalistic wisdom, and is not always bad -- at an existential level, it is my body rebelling against its entrapment. It is my soul fighting the Procrustean bed of modernity.”
“The curious mind embraces science; the gifted and sensitive, the arts; the practical, business; the leftover becomes an economist”
“As a matter of fact, your happiness depends far more on the number of instances of positive feelings, what psychologists call "positive effect", then on their intensity when they hit. In other words, good news is good news first. How good matters rather little. So to have a pleasant life you should spread those small effects across time as evenly as possible. Plenty of mildly good news is preferable to one single lump of great news. The same is property in reverse applies to our unhappiness. It is better to lump all your pain into a brief period, rather than have it spread out over a long time.”
“A prophet is not someone with special visions, just someone blind to most of what others see”
“If the past, by bringing surprises, did not resemble the past previous to it (what I call the past's past), then why should our future resemble our current past?”