Letters Remain

Tag: nassim-nicholas-taleb

  • Tsundoku and Eco’s Antilibrary

    Today I learnt of tsundoku: 19th-century Japanese slang for “the phenomenon of acquiring reading materials but letting them pile up in one’s home without reading them”. Yep, that’s me—with physical books, sure, but especially with ebooks. I love books as much as the next person, but I’m no bibliomaniac. Instead, I’m reminded of the more…

  • Preventing and Rethinking Black Swans

    On my recent travels to eastern Australia I was lucky enough to see a black swan. This got me thinking of the other type of black swan—specifically, two items I’ve read in the recent past: Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s ten principles for a Black Swan-proof world (via Kottke, pdf): What is fragile should break early while…