Talk:Nassim Nicholas Taleb

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Contents

[edit] Reqphoto

http://www.fooledbyrandomness.com/pictures.htm has pictures made available for public use. The first one from the top is available.

[edit] Financial Trader vs Mathematical Trader

There has been some back and forth about whether to call Taleb a "financial trader" or a "mathematical trader".

If I had to choose between those two options, I would go with "financial trader", because to call someone a "mathematical trader" is to leave out a description of what he is trading.

I'd be open to another way of describing Taleb's niche in the financial world.

— Steve Casburn 20:00, 13 December 2005 (UTC)

I would argue that derivatives trader is a better description. Daviegold 08:10, 27 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Trading Finance

Taleb states in his website the information related to his work in the Trading Finance field. If you want to remove this section or sentences from it please discuss it here first.
Trade2tradewell 20:49, 23 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] citation needed

Citation needed for "Taleb never considered himself a trader"
Trade2tradewell 09:26, 25 September 2006 (UTC)


on page 102 (fooled by randomness)Taleb states that he is a trader "both of us are traders...."

Taleb does not want to be labeled as trader as his main profession. Go read the book instead of lifting selective sentences and producing meaning out of context.

[edit] Pioneer citation needed

Some editors insist upon calling Taleb a "pioneer of complex financial derivatives". Could someone describe this pioneering work or explain what this term means? From everything I have read about him, it seems the majority of his career has been as a prop trader. Daviegold 11:25, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

Check out Dynamic Hedging.

I have read Dynamic Hedging, having written a book on options pricing and hedging does not make a person a pioneer of complex financial derivatives. He is a trader, and author. Daviegold 15:19, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Taleb's New Book

Please don't talk about Taleb's new book if you do not have precise information as to its contents.67.87.250.229 20:10, 18 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Influenced by

Can we cite the people who seem to have influenced Taleb's current writing and thinking along the lines of randomness as Bastiat, G.L.S. Shackle and Sextus Empiricus ? He seems to be building on their work and refers to them in his book and podcasts. Kendirangu 16:34, 8 June 2007 (UTC)

Sextus Empiricus has influence, for sure. But generally speaking I think Taleb do not like this whole mechanical categorization, as if this whole thinking business is kind of technical tree this from this etc. Reality is way more interesting than a dry and very insufficient definition and name listings. In particular, I think Taleb was influenced by many. YechezkelZilber 23:36, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Greek Orthodox

Per WP:BLP, without a reliable source that Taleb is himself a Greek Orthodox Christian, we cannot put that claim in the article. —Ashley Y 21:16, 1 July 2007 (UTC)

Taleb says it on his web site, it is mentioned in the New Yorker profile (by Gladwell), and it is discussed in Chapter 1 or The Black Swan and Chapter 4 of The Black Swan.

Could you provide the quotes? He discusses his Greek Orthodox family background, but I can't find anywhere on his web site or in TBS where he says that he himself is any kind of Christian. It's really important that we have solid sources for claims we make about living people. —Ashley Y 23:23, 1 July 2007 (UTC)
Gladwell says "Taleb is Greek-Orthodox Lebanese and his first language was French", but he seems to be referring to his background rather than his religion. —Ashley Y 23:33, 1 July 2007 (UTC)

ISSUE RESOLVED - see my edit note on the main article - Plus, for what it's worth, I guess it just goes to show that Wikipedia is a profoundly Western institution (fair I suppose since English is a Western language) that someone would make a distinction between being Greek Orthodox and coming from a Greek Orthodox family. In Lebanon, the 2 are equivalent regardless of private belief. To be sure, this is not at all a criticism of Wikipedia's policy, just a musing on different cultural understandings of what it means to be a member of a religion. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.29.43.13 (talk • contribs)

OK, on the basis of this statement of self-identity, the category is appropriate. We might want to put in the ref as well. —Ashley Y

[edit] Milan Kundera, Ismail Kadare

Unless someone sources his similarities with Kundera and Kadare, two writers who I have read extensively, I don't see any way this comparison holds any ground. Both of them are writers of literature, Taleb isn't one. And especially Kundera bears absolutely no relation to this guy. Kudera might have some philosophical quotes in his books but they are all serving the story artistically, nothing more. I also have issues with his classification as a philosopher. How can someone with an mba and some post grad. on mathematics be considered a philosopher. In this sense anyone who writes a few pop science books is a philosopher. 84.254.51.230 04:24, 28 September 2007 (UTC)

Being philosopher is not a matter of having a philosophy degree. Priod. If you need a technical measure, I do not know many people with more knowledge in philosophical literature! YechezkelZilber (talk • contribs)

[edit] Fair use rationale for Image:Taleb's picture 001.png

Image:Taleb's picture 001.png is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If there is other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images uploaded after 4 May, 2006, and lacking such an explanation will be deleted one week after they have been uploaded, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.

BetacommandBot 20:01, 24 October 2007 (UTC)

I explained in the page of the picture it is freee for all as the picture owner stated on the site where the picture came from. See picture page for details. YechezkelZilber 01:09, 25 October 2007 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by YechezkelZilber (talk • contribs)

[edit] Move to full name

As "Nassim Nicholas Taleb" is the name by which this individual is best known (see google), I am going to move this article to Nassim Nicholas Taleb. Skomorokh 13:18, 6 April 2008 (UTC)