#691: Nassim N. Taleb & Scott Patterson How Traders Make Billions in The New Age of Crisis, Defending Against Silent Risks, Personal Independence, Skepticism Where It (Really) Counts, The Bishop and The Economist, and Much More

So, I think the most fragile part today is not the banks... and it's not hedge funds... It is those startups and VCs and venture capitalists ... All of them are rich on a company that never made a penny.

If you have skin in the game, you're going to worry about blow up because it's your money. If you don't have skin in the game... what is your incentive? It's to print good numbers, because you don't pay for the downside.

Unless you're a trader, don't trader. Unless you're a baker, don't bake. Unless you're a dynamite maker, don't make dynamite.

If you must panic, panic now.

It's easier to check people at the border. You don't need to have quarantine; you can just test at the border. We didn't test the United States at the border until a year and one month into the pandemic. I don't understand. You have lockdowns, but you don't have lockouts. I mean, just test at the border.

You want to be the most ethical person when people think that you're corrupt. You want to be the most corrupt person when people think that you're ethical. Make your choice, and use that as guideline.

"I noticed a lot of people are skeptical, particular conspiracy theorists, they're skeptical of small things but not about big ones ... Find me a conspiracy theorist or someone who's naturally skeptic of all things, and I'll show you a turkey.

Those who are skeptical about the existence of God ... skeptical about religious matters typically tend to be complete suckers when it comes to stocks. They believe in some kind of pseudo-scientific theory, or whatever it is, but they don't believe in religion, and the reverse.

I was initially skeptical about the vaccine ... COVID is much more dangerous than you think, and the vaccine is what made it tolerable.

We are seeing a magnification of extreme events, accelerating and overlapping ... These crises that are happening on a global scale are interacting in ways that the whole becomes greater and worse than the sum of the parts.

I am in favor of vaccines—the risk is thin-tailed; and I'm against GMOs, because they spread in the environment.

Last year, the Biden Administration passed the Inflation Reduction Act, which has nothing to do with inflation. That thing is sending shockwaves through the climate technology world in ways that—it's kind of mind-blowing, and it's changed the game for America.

The whole idea of 'The Black Swan', everything I've been telling everyone I meet... is to not be harmed by silent risk.