Nassim Nicholas Taleb on Self-Education and Doing the Math (Plus special guest Bryan Caplan)

Conversations with Tyler

Society & Culture, Education

4.8 • 2.4K Ratings

🗓️ 23 May 2018

⏱️ 97 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Though what Taleb was really after was a discussion with Bryan Caplan (which starts at 51:50), the philosopher, mathematician, and author most recently of *Skin in the Game* also generously agreed to a conversation with Tyler.

They discuss the ancient Phoenicians and Greco-Roman heritage of Lebanon, philology, genetics, the blockchain, driverless cars, the advantages of Twitter fights, how to think about religion, fancy food vs. Auntie Anne's pretzels, autodidactism, The Desert of the Tartar, why Taleb refused to give a book tour, inverse role models, why math isn't just a young man's game, and more.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links. Click here for the full transcript where Bryan Caplan interviews Nassim.

Recorded May 2nd, 2018

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey everyone, a few announcements before the show.
0:06.0	First, this episode featuring the seam Nicholas Taleb is immediately followed by a bonus segment.
0:11.9	The bonus segment features Taleb and Brian Kaplan talking about Kaplan's latest book,
0:17.5	The Case Against Education.
0:19.6	So that will play right after the conversation with Taleb.
0:23.5	And of course, if you haven't checked out Brian Kaplan's conversation with Tyler, it's
0:27.8	also right there in your podcast app.
0:30.2	Second, you Taleb fans will know he wrote a book called Anti-Fragile, which is about things
0:35.4	that gain from disorder.
0:37.7	Audio recording systems do not gain from disorder, and are failed for this live event.
0:43.6	That means you're going to be hearing a backup audio recording, which unfortunately is
0:48.0	of lower quality.
0:49.6	If you're having trouble following along with the audio, I'd encourage you to click in
0:53.5	the show notes to the transcript and enjoy the conversation that way.
0:58.0	Lastly, this episode does contain some explicit language, so if you're listening with kids
1:02.4	around, you might want to pop in the earbuds for this one.
1:05.6	We'll be back in two weeks with Tyler's conversation with David Brooks.
1:09.3	It sounds much better, I promise.
1:14.9	Conversations with Tyler is produced by the Mercada Center at George Mason University,
1:20.1	bridging the gap between academic ideas and real world problems.
1:24.3	Learn more at orcadest.org.
1:27.0	And for more conversations, including videos, transcripts, and upcoming dates, visit
	...

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