"the term "neo-Luddite" is most often deployed by advocates of technology to describe people or organisations that oppose their views." LOL, the difference is only one of degree, not definition. Show me how you can make money with Taleb's ideas, otherwise his concepts have to remain in the realm on pure fantasy and conjecture (along with Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy). JJ
My Logic and Statistics professors in college were close and had a great grasp of their individual worth in the realm of Math and Science. It was a good thing they were married because a more perfect balance between 2 people I have never had the pleasure of knowing. My statistics professor would always say, "Liars figure and figures lie and that is what keeps us statisticians in jobs". The reason programming is done using Logic because it is a strict "If then" environment. You can't program anything using statistics because of its variable nature. I do agree with testing all theories, they have to be tested to be proved but having a variable technician test a strict logical theorem doesn't work. The rules are different. You can't prove logic (language) using statistical math.
taleb teaches a way of looking at the world, a way of thinking that is different from the crowd, generally. i believe that knowledge outside of the markets can be applied to the markets to gain a different perspective--- hence taleb makes smart reading for traders/investors. taleb ran a 100 million dollar plus hedge fund, plus traded options full time for several years--- he has been there, done that and is more than "just" an academic. here's a piece on application: <i>. ``Be as hyperconservative and hyperaggressive as you can instead of being mildly aggressive or conservative. Instead of having medium risk, you have high risk on one side and no risk on the other. The average will be medium risk but constitutes a positive exposure to the Black Swan.''</i> good stuff. surf ps. remember a black swan can be positive or negative --- as an example google success and 9-11 are two opposing types of black swans
Oh, I agree. I for one am the master of my cave and my environment but outside my cave I am just another smart ass human with opinions.
I'm not sure i understand what you mean. Are you trying to say that logic (in some sense)is discrete while statistics (in a sense) is continuous?
Using statistics you can manipulate the data/results to prove anything you want. If this were possible in Logic, computers would have never been created.