[lit-ideas] 10 Rules for Living with Dignity in an Uncertain World

Nasseem Nicholas Taleb, the author of The Black Swan, offers these
suggestions

>  1 Scepticism is effortful and costly. It is better to be sceptical about
> matters of large consequences, and be imperfect, foolish and human in the
> small and the aesthetic.
>
2 Go to parties. You can't even start to know what you may find on the
envelope of serendipity. If you suffer from agoraphobia, send colleagues.

3 It's not a good idea to take a forecast from someone wearing a tie. If
possible, tease people who take themselves and their knowledge too
seriously.

4 Wear your best for your execution and stand dignified. Your last recourse
against randomness is how you act — if you can't control outcomes, you can
control the elegance of your behaviour. You will always have the last word.

5 Don't disturb complicated systems that have been around for a very long
time. We don't understand their logic. Don't pollute the planet. Leave it
the way we found it, regardless of scientific 'evidence'.

6 Learn to fail with pride — and do so fast and cleanly. Maximise trial and
error — by mastering the error part.

7 Avoid losers. If you hear someone use the words 'impossible', 'never',
'too difficult' too often, drop him or her from your social network. Never
take 'no' for an answer (conversely, take most 'yeses' as 'most probably').

8 Don't read newspapers for the news (just for the gossip and, of course,
profiles of authors). The best filter to know if the news matters is if you
hear it in cafes, restaurants... or (again) parties.

9 Hard work will get you a professorship or a BMW. You need both work and
luck for a Booker, a Nobel or a private jet.

10 Answer e-mails from junior people before more senior ones. Junior people
have further to go and tend to remember who slighted them.

Sounds pretty good to me.

John

-- 
John McCreery
The Word Works, Ltd., Yokohama, JAPAN
Tel. +81-45-314-9324
jlm@xxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.wordworks.jp/

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