Taleb’s “Triplet of Opacity”

July 19th, 2009 by Jimmy | Posted in Philosophy | No Comments »

The “Triplet of Opacity”:

1. Illusion of Understanding- everyone thinks they know what is going on in a world that is more complicated (or random) than they realize.
2. Retrospective Distortion- We can assess matters only after the fact (like a rear-view mirror); history appear clearer and more organized than in empirical reality.
3. Overvaluation of Factual Information and the Handicap of Authoritative and Learned People- We give more value to facts than should be warranted and are at the mercy of those with authority and who are learned, especially when they “Platonify.”

The Black Swan, Nassim Taleb, pp. 8.

Moving On Towards Summer

May 10th, 2009 by Jimmy | Posted in Life | No Comments »

The semester is done, and now it’s time to act upon all the things that I talked about throughout the semester.

Summer goals:

• Finish reading The Black Swan
• Re-check out and finish “Philosophy of Economics” from the library
• Go through Trigonometry and Pre-calculus video series from Khan Academy
• Move to south Austin
• Get a new bike, or at least do some serious bike overhauling
• Read Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
• Not smoke

I really intended to write something marginally interesting this morning, but I’m just lacking motivation as of late.