Waiting for Taleb.

Dire pane al pane e panino al panino.i So let’s make a sammich together, not leastly because women’s work ain’t what she used to be, however temporarily, but also because it may prove an instructive experience in demonstrating to you that really you don’t know what you really don’t know. And that patience is a virtue.ii And possibly even other things :

~ Primo : Pane ~

Back so soon ? Did you skip the video because you’re lazy, because you’re a man of words and not of pictures, because you’ve already seen it, because you can’t be bothered to all, because you like to build sammiches upsidedown, or perhaps because you’re just waiting for a quiet evening to enjoy the film in full ? Whatever the case may be, let’s not drag our heels in the sand any more than is strictly necessary. For the sake of expediency, let’s continue our encrusted mission, shall we ? You can always come back for seconds later.

~ Secondo : Formaggio ~

To quote from one of the earliest Contravex articles, Attracting Taleb and TLP to #bitcoin-assets… With camgirls :

Given that Ballas is writing a hardcore pornography novel of some description, the first video seems at least somewhat likely to catch his attention.

For Taleb, however, I’m less convinced that Ms. Saffron has what it takes to lure him to #b-a. Though the second video is certainly a creative approach, for which Mircea Popescu, its patron, is to be recognized, it doesn’t strike me as the right carrot with which to entice Nassim. The Levantine flâneur is more likely to be drawn in by promises of rare texts in arcane languages, or public debates with Nobel Prize winning derps. Still, given that Taleb also rejected my offer of a free bitcoin,iii as well as several other such offers and invitations, more creative solutions are needed if #bitcoin-assets is going to attract (even more) such distinguished fellows.iv

So neither of these two gentlemen can therefore in good conscience deny that they’ve either heard of Bitcoin, been offered some gratis, or been extended invitations to the court of The Most Serene Republic, and yet… they resist. Perhaps this is surprising, perhaps not, but such is the mystery of the human organism that its incentives are not always externally obvious nor readily accessible to even the keenest observers.

On a related note, isn’t it ironic that the very contrary assumption as to the availability of this epistemological data, that incentives are externally obvious and readily accessible, is the exact, and obviously sandy, foundation upon which centralised nation states – from Tsarist Russia and its state-backed agency for combating alcoholism, the Guardianship of Popular Sobriety, to modern-day USA and its state-backed agency for combating domestic terrorism, the Department of Homeland Securityv – build their rationalistic and scientistic frauds ?

~ Terzo : Pomodoro ~

Von dem Wunderlogs.

~ Quarto : Carne ~

So is it just a matter of time before Herr Nassim Nicholas Taleb – who’s been quoted so, so, so many times on these pages that I dare not even enumerate them lest I link all 350-odd posts, and without whom I could’ve never personally appreciated the potential of Bitcoin, the single most important innovation in my lifetime – shows up to #b-a, gets in the WoT like a good lil’ boy, and begins to ingratiate himself to what may well be the global vanguard in the realm of discrediting, destroying, and otherwise decimating the fragilista economists, charlatanic central planners, soi-disant heads of state, and other associated pretenders to the throne ?

Four years since Antifragile was published, and also four years since I chewed through it cover-to-cover in back-to-back sittings, I was re-reading the third part of the Incerto series while taking in the blonde beaches and azure waters of Cancun recently, and these selected quotes jumped out at me. Not only do they affirm my original hypothesisvi that Taleb isn’t about to roll by #b-a any time soon but also that may not even a matter of time. In fact, it won’t take anything less than what I originally proposed all those years ago. As you can plainly see from the following excerptations – assuming you know anything at all about the cult – things that are more likely than Taleb showing up unannounced include a Warren Buffet who knows what day of the week it is,vii antigravity Deloreans,viii and renewed prosperity for the formerly oil-driven Alberta economyix  :

It is painful to think about ruthlessness as an engine of improvement.

Some of the ideas about fitness and selection are not very confortable to this author, which makes the writing of some sections rather painful – I detest the ruthlessness of selection, the inexorable disloyalty of Mother Nature. I detest the notion of improvement of systems at the expense of individuals, for if you follow the reasoning, this makes us humans individually irrelevant.

An economy cannot survive without breaking individual eggs ; protection is harmful, and constraining the forces of evolution to benfit individuals does not seem required. But we can shield individuals from starvation, provide some social protection. And give them respect.

In essence, Taleb is a social liberal, even if he’s also a fiscal conservative.

~ Ultimo : Pane ~

VLADIMIR: (sententious) To every man his little cross. (He sighs.) Till he dies. (Afterthought.) And is forgotten.
ESTRAGON: In the meantime let us try and converse calmly, since we are incapable of keeping silent.
VLADIMIR: You’re right, we’re inexhaustible.
ESTRAGON: It’s so we won’t think.
VLADIMIR: We have that excuse.
ESTRAGON: It’s so we won’t hear.
VLADIMIR: We have our reasons.
ESTRAGON: All the dead voices.
VLADIMIR: They make a noise like wings.
ESTRAGON: Like leaves.
VLADIMIR: Like sand.
ESTRAGON: Like leaves. (Silence.)
VLADIMIR: They all speak at once.
ESTRAGON: Each one to itself. (Silence.)
VLADIMIR: Rather they whisper.
ESTRAGON: They rustle.
VLADIMIR: They murmur.
ESTRAGON: They rustle. (Silence.)
VLADIMIR: What do they say?
ESTRAGON: They talk about their lives.
VLADIMIR: To have lived is not enough for them.
ESTRAGON: They have to talk about it.
VLADIMIR: To be dead is not enough for them.
ESTRAGON: It is not sufficient. (Silence.)
VLADIMIR: They make a noise like feathers.
ESTRAGON: Like leaves.
VLADIMIR: Likes ashes.
ESTRAGON: Like leaves. (Long silence.)
VLADIMIR: Say something!
ESTRAGON: I’m trying. (Long silence.)
VLADIMIR: (In anguish) Say anything at all!
ESTRAGON: What do we do now?
VLADIMIR: Wait for Godot.
ESTRAGON: Ah! (Silence.)

With Taleb edging ever closer to 60 years of age and the all-important cut-off for military service,x the hopeful candle flickering in the window, that which represents the blazing beacon he need follow if he ever intends to set alight our shared enemies – the incalculably inhumane echafaudage of the USG and its charlatanic minions – wavers evermore tenuously in the breeze. Taleb might be an fiscal conservative, but social conservativism is also very much de rigueur in #b-a, and its this that he so sorely lacks.

So where does that leave us ? Well, waiting. But at least now we have a panino to chew on.

___ ___ ___

  1. The original Italian proverb, unbastardised by my obtuse intents, is “dire pane al pane e vino al vino,” which translates to “call a spade a spade.”
  2. The best thing in the world was for Bitcoin to continue trading at ~0.0001x its potential value these past few years. You couldn’t handle the wealth if it went to 0.01x ; I’m not sure that I could either.
  3. This was back in my Twitter days, probably about two years ago a hundred thousand blocks ago now.
  4. There’s a vast and growing list of projects to be undertaken by would-be captains of future industry. Indeed, there are far more jobs than men up to the task. But lest you think that this warrants a lowering of the bar to entry – an increase in the accessibility of job to fit the sorry standard of men idiomatically conversant in the Queen’s (the primary, if far from the only language of the Republic) – think again.

    The hurdle is where it is, and so will it stay for as long as Bitcoin sets the high watermark.

  5. Aussi connu par la nom de la Département de Gerdarmerie.
  6. This affirmation being noted, it’s perhaps ironic that Taleb showing up to #b-a would be very much something of a Black Swan – highly unlikely yet highly consequential. Furthermore, every day he doesn’t show up only increases one’s confidence in the prediction that he’ll ~never~ show up, but that doesn’t mean that Thanksgiving will never come for the turkey.
  7. Poor guy’s been senile for a few years now. Can’t you tell ?
  8. Whether new ones or old ones.
  9. The economic future for Oilberta Alberta is pretty bleak : somewhere between Newfoundland and Ontario on the Canadian Bleak-o-meter. A ray of sunshine isn’t inconceivable, however, and it’d look like an end to oil imports to Eastern Canada from the United States, which is currently the status quo due to the lack of major east-west pipelines in the country. As doing business with Americans in any shape, way or form becomes increasingly cumbersome to the point of impossibility, an east-west pipeline is a reasonable prospect in the order of a 10-20 year time horizon. Until then, choppy waters are ahead.
  10. At least in some countries, eg. Finland, Serbia, Norway, and Venezuala.

    AFAIK there’s no one older than 50 in #b-a at the present time, possibly even over 40.

4 thoughts on “Waiting for Taleb.

  1. […] you of anyone else ? Taleb perhaps ? Of course, MP calls out frauds too (and how), but no one has yet managed to isolate the […]

  2. […] uses this godforsaken platform when he has his own website. There’s no waiting for him to come ’round. […]

  3. […] hard is this is to swallow, Taleb‘s poverty shan’t dissuade us from pressing on in our search for Truth! So let’s […]

  4. […] point. While I have nowhere near the gravitas of many of the other contributors – including Taleb, who wrote the foreword – it’s really a very pleasant surprise to see my name in […]

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