I stumbled across this commencement speech by Nicholas Nassim Taleb at the American University of Beirut a little while ago. Just a little over 17 minutes, do watch it. Some parts of the speech that struck a deep chord with me are transcribed below.
"......I have a single definition of success: you look in the mirror every evening, and wonder if you disappoint the person you were at 18, right before the age when people start getting corrupted by life. Let him or her be the only judge; not your reputation, not your wealth, not your standing in the community, not the decorations on your lapel. If you do not feel ashamed, you are successful. All other definitions of success are modern constructions; fragile modern constructions."
"Success requires absence of fragility. I’ve seen billionaires terrified of journalists, wealthy people who felt crushed because their brother-in-law got very rich, academics with Nobel who were scared of comments on the web. The higher you go, the worse the fall. For almost all people I’ve met, external success came with increased fragility and a heightened state of insecurity. The worst are those "former something" types with 4 page CVs who, after leaving office, and addicted to the attention of servile bureaucrats, find themselves discarded: as if you went home one evening to discover that someone suddenly emptied your house of all its furniture."
"But self-respect is robust -- that’s the approach of the Stoic school, which incidentally was a Phoenician movement. (If someone wonders who are the Stoics I’d say Buddhists with an attitude problem, imagine someone both very Lebanese and Buddhist). I’ve seen robust people in my village Amioun who were proud of being local citizens involved in their tribe; they go to bed proud and wake up happy. Or Russian mathematicians who, during the difficult post-Soviet transition period, were proud of making $200 a month and do work that is appreciated by twenty people and considered that showing one’s decorations, or accepting awards, were a sign of weakness and lack of confidence in one’s contributions. And, believe it or not, some wealthy people are robust. But you just don’t hear about them because they are not socialites, live next door, and drink Arak baladi not Veuve Cliquot."
"If I had to relive my life I would be even more stubborn and uncompromising than I have been."
"One should never do anything without skin in the game. If you give advice, you need to be exposed to losses from it. It is an extension to the silver rule. So I will tell you what tricks I employ."
"Do not read the newspapers, or follow the news in any way or form. To be convinced, try reading last years’ newspaper. It doesn’t mean ignore the news; it means that you go from the events to the news, not the other way around."
"If something is nonsense, you say it and say it loud. You will be harmed a little but will be antifragile – in the long run people who need to trust you will trust you."
"When I was still an obscure author, I walked out of a studio Bloomberg Radio during an interview because the interviewer was saying nonsense. Three years later Bloomberg Magazine did a cover story on me. Every economist on the planet hates me."
"I’ve suffered two smear campaigns, and encour-aged by the most courageous Lebanese ever since Hannibal, Ralph Nader, I took reputational risks by exposing large evil corporations such as Monsanto, and suffered a smear campaign for it. "
"Treat the doorman with a bit more respect than the big boss."
"If something is boring, avoid it. Save taxes and visits to the mother in law. Why? Because your biology is the best nonsense detector; use it to navigate your life."
"There are a lot of such rules in my books, so for now let me finish with a maxim. The following are no-nos"
- Muscles without strength
- Friendship without trust
- Opinion without risk
- Change without aesthetics
- Age without values
- Food without nourishment
- Power without fairness
- Facts without rigor
- Degrees without erudition
- Militarism without fortitude
- Progress without civilization
- Complication without depth
- Fluency without content
- And, most of all, religion without tolerance.