7/27/2019 Taleb

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/taleb 1/4

6/8/13 9:3he Inventory: Nassim Nicholas Taleb - FT.com

Page ttp://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/d538a45a-4871-11e2-a1c0-00144feab49a.html#axzz2VZeMOULZ

N

une 7, 2013 6:33 pm

The Inventory: NassimNicholas Taleb

Who is my mentor? I have inverse mentors: people I learnt to not imitate,’

says the scholar and philosopher

assim Nicholas Taleb, 53, is distinguished

professor of risk engineering at New York 

University’s Polytechnic Institute. Following acareer in finance, he is now the best-selling

author of books that include The Black Swan

and Antifragile .

. .

What was your childhood or earliest ambition?

was utopian. I found adults and adulthoodundamentally corrupt, self-serving and unclear. I still

do but I now find the utopian even more harmful.

Public school or state school? University or

straight into work?

French lycée, whatever that means. University but

argely autodidact as almost never attended classes.

Universit y is a good place to drink, make friends and

discuss books, nothing else. But the education one gets

here is way too commoditised.

Who was or still is your mentor?

My maternal aunt and paternal grand-uncle. They understand collective wisdom, the type of 

©Camera Press

t.com > life&arts >

7/27/2019 Taleb

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/taleb 2/4

6/8/13 9:3he Inventory: Nassim Nicholas Taleb - FT.com

Page ttp://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/d538a45a-4871-11e2-a1c0-00144feab49a.html#axzz2VZeMOULZ

Fitness regime: Heavy weights

If you had a coat of arms,what would be on it?

A lion as a model of death

before submission.

mistakes one may regret as opposed to good mistakes. I also have inverse mentors: people I learnt

o not imitate.

How physically fit are you?

lift heavy weights and sprint but I am so bad at it that I develop severe injuries. Like now.

mbition or talent: which matters more to

success?

Both concepts are modernist nonsense. Success is

about honour, feeling morally calibrated, absence of 

hame, not what some newspaper defines from an

external metric.

How politically committed are you?

ndependent, with a Burkean bent, anti-centralised

tate, anti-large corporations, anti-debt – so largely localist, pro-city states and green.

Do you consider your carbon footprint?

ndeed. I drive a hybrid, moving into an electric car. I only drink tap water, never consume food

hat’s travelled. Have been moving many lectures to teleconferencing.

Do you have more than one home?

Not really, one in the US plus a shared family house in Lebanon. I

prefer hotel rooms.

In what place are you happiest?

It is atmosphere-dependent. I am happy everywhere except in places

 where I see glitz and rich farts. I am happiest in Brooklyn, where theconcentration of rich farts is minimal.

 What would you like to own that you don’t currently 

possess?

Nothing.

©Dreamstime

7/27/2019 Taleb

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/taleb 3/4

6/8/13 9:3he Inventory: Nassim Nicholas Taleb - FT.com

Page ttp://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/d538a45a-4871-11e2-a1c0-00144feab49a.html#axzz2VZeMOULZ

Happiest: in Brooklyn

 

What’s your biggest extravagance?

Books, books and books.

What ambitions do you still have?

To complete a multi-volume mathematical expression of the ideas of the more philosophical works

with rigorous derivations and proofs. Volume one is complete.

What drives you on?

want to put my works under one title, Incerto, in 10 volumes – six philosophical and four

mathematical – so people can grasp it all as a single piece.

What is the greatest achievement of your lifeso far?

’ve learnt to never compromise.

What has been your greatest disappointment?

That I am unable to destroy the economics

establishment, the press.

f your 20-year-old self could see you now,

what would he think?

That I am not ashamed to be judged by my 20-year-old self. I swerved on occasion but ultimately 

tayed in line with what he wanted me to be.

f you lost everything tomorrow, what would you do?

This is the ethos of  Antifragile: thinking about such an event every day so you reduce fragility toadverse events. I’ve lived in preparation for that possibility. Plan B is to move to college dorms. But

nothing would be more devastating than reduced access to a technical library.

Do you believe in assisted suicide?

believe in a stoic approach to suicide as one ends life on one’s own terms.

©Dreamstime

7/27/2019 Taleb

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/taleb 4/4

6/8/13 9:3he Inventory: Nassim Nicholas Taleb - FT.com

Page ttp://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/d538a45a-4871-11e2-a1c0-00144feab49a.html#axzz2VZeMOULZ

Printed from: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/d538a45a-4871-11e2-a1c0-00144feab49a.html

Print a single copy of this article for personal use. Contact us if you wish to print more to distribute to others.

© THE FINANCIAL TIMES LTD 2013 FT and ‘Financial Times’ are trademarks of The Financial Times Ltd.

 Antifragile

Nassim Nicholas Ta...

Best Price £3.87 or Buy New £6.74

Privacy Information

You need to control destiny. I did not come to this world to live for ever. Make

oom for others.

f you had to rate your satisfaction with your life so far, out of 10,

what would you score?

Life is not about self-satisfaction but the satisfaction of a sense of duty. It is allor nothing. Nine out of 10 would be total failure.

------------------------------------------

Antifragile’, by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, is published in paperback by

Penguin, £8.99