Nassim Nicholas Taleb: "Localism and its Application to Lebanon"

In a pop-up seminar held at the LAU New York Academic Center and Headquarters, author Nassim Nicholas Taleb discusses the recent protests happening in Lebanon and the idea of localism being a viable solution for the country.

[@leox3965]

"I have a heuristic that tells me if a country is well functioning and that heuristic is how boring the front-page of their newspaper is."

[@mohinderkumar7298]

Brilliant! I often felt it same way.

[@5Gazto]

Basically no corpses or corruption scandals. I don't know why anybody sane would find that entertaining.

[@simbabwe2907]

@@5Gazto the opposite of boting is not entertaining but interesting, wow that realy was bad faith from you.

[@leox3965]

"Localism is not a political system. It's a structure."

[@leox3965]

"Good fences make good neighbors"

[@BenjEvans]

Robert Frost

[@tuckerbugeater]

@@alexlex5792 prosecute employers employing illegals. That will never happen.

[@leox3965]

"Journalists are not interested in what happened. They are interested in what can grab your attention."

[@windyhairyguy]

Leo X so true

[@leox3965]

"The Arabs figured it out. Their hospitality is second to none. When one stranger visits, they treat him like a king. Once they are up to 5, they kill them"

[@leox3965]

"Rent seeking is someone who uses privilege to get an income that does not contribute to economic activity"

[@ChaitanyaSayi]

Grant Cardone has left the chat

[@georgeokello8620]

A better example would have been Blackrock, the large investment asset management company that bought large portions of real estate in America that further accelerated increase in prices of homes that were already in shortage for middle income ppl wanting to start families and further aggravating home ownership mobility as one of the transfers of wealth from old to young generations whom are willing to contribute to society economically.

[@leox3965]

"You should not create risk then walk away from it"

[@tibs7095]

43:30 "maybe the number 5 is the limit" -- idk if it's related but none of the native Australian languages had a number system that went beyond five; due to their way of life, they didn't have many countable possessions (e.g. cattle) so they only dealt with individual people (e.g. not "my 3 kids" but "jim, joe, and jane") and individual things (e.g. not "my 3 spears" but "my hunting spear, my fishing spear, and my ceremonial spear" -- all with actual names, not "x type of spear" of course)

[@leox3965]

"Never describe, compare or access the effectiveness of political systems without reference to scale"

[@leox3965]

"You can be racist to groups but not to individuals"

[@leox3965]

"Universalists love groups but hate individuals. The larger the group, the more abstract the relationship is"

[@leox3965]

"Things develop and then, the state comes to kill it" eg France, Egypt, China

[@dodomarek]

These books have been translated to my language, Czech. I love all Taleb's books.

[@JulienReszka]

You know how to read and that's the kind of books you spend reading? You should seriously question your priorities.

[@skinindagame_]

@@JulienReszka I never read something more interesting than Taleb´s Incerto. Greetings from Germany.

[@emanuelet1366]

He is so fucking brilliant

[@Mica-sf9ud]

Amazing. Hope Lebanese and everyone else that would benefit from Taleb’s work get the message.

[@xibokamania]

What happens when a locality/canton becomes so "attractive" that people from other localities start flocking to it for economical or other self-interest reasons? Won't that canton have to grow geographically and engulf the neighboring cantons? You basically get New York, London, which are unmanageable according to Taleb, do you have to keep splitting nation states over time?

[@alexandersumer4295]

It becomes less attractive as a result of increased competition and over population.

[@virathdealwis5312]

There's also the point that this is just pressure on the other cantons to create more favorable laws and systems, the ones that cannot do so quickly will shrink, but the ones that learn from the success and the failure grow. At the same time yes, if the system is successful then wealth should grow at the small pieces will become bigger, then you prune down to a more manageable size. I get that this sounds irritating but it would only become a problem if the system is successful.

[@aoeu256]

They can buy land from the other cantons.

[@EM-vp2gx]

I wonder if there is a country on earth where we can check that...!

[@leox3965]

"Those that eat like you is how you identify. #localism"

[@leox3965]

"Without scale nothing works"

[@WeekzGod]

Amazing talk

[@Judea06]

"Things develop then the state comes to kill it"

[@meganperri4316]

Genius

[@nicholashouse4261]

This will be very helpful for an upcoming paper in political philosophy class. I wonder what Dr. Taleb thinks about how to reduce "systemic racism."

[@jake.presents]

Hammurabi's… decision-makers are responsible for the risk they put onto others. Banks wouldn't get bailouts, they'd be allowed to fail and the bankers punished. This naturally allows the best to rise, because people will follow and hire NOT because of skin color, but because of ability & rewards of success.

[@mattzobian]

He thinks wokeness is the epitime of social fragility.

[@JonathanSilvermanJonathan]

"What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow: this is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation; go and learn." - Hillel the Elder - Shabbath folio:31a, Babylonian Talmud

[@Elie-J-Saoud]

Really? Seriously? If what You are stating is true then let us put the torah to the recycle bin with SHIFT+DELETE and keep just the sentence You started with, no?! You know BS about the Torah and You know nothing(or hiding) about the BS of the Torah... Liar

[@Sport4Life]

Ah yeah, we see how good that is working in the zionist colony

[@jethomas5]

@@Elie-J-Saoud LOL

[@leox3965]

"When an Israeli and Palestinian meet, they get along. Once the troops arrive, it's a whole different story. This is something not picked up by the systems"

[@leox3965]

"Anything zero-sum is unethical to me"

[@5Gazto]

What is "immune", or however you spell it?

[@Learna_Hydralis]

Amioun, a town in Lebanon & the origin place of Nassim.

[@tbomber]

Nassim doesn't understand his own ideas when it comes to Uber rating. He probably is, but most people aren't very scrutinizing with their rating, and so the bias is heavily toward 5 stars. 4.90 is not bad, but nothing special. Anything below 4.75 is bad.

[@virathdealwis5312]

4.9 is not common though seriously the 5 star bias is true, but anyone who does enough rides eventually gets to around 4.8 at most.

[@dundoderdumme3044]

1:17:00 Everyones bodylanguage goes from relaxed and attentative to "uh,oh here we go" when she challenges him

[@spaghettigenius1865]

44:00

[@leox3965]

"Make laws along geographic lines not sectarian lines."

[@JustinPavoni]

this guy gets it. sounds a lot like a voluntaryist

[@WeekzGod]

Localism is not nearly as individualistic an idea.

[@JustinPavoni]

​@@WeekzGod voluntaryism applies equally to groups as it does to individuals. the important thing is that human interactions (individual or collective) be consensual (whether they be local or global - it doesn't matter).

[@tuckerbugeater]

@@JustinPavoni What happens when you don't consent to any of it?

[@JustinPavoni]

@@tuckerbugeater then you must be prepared to suffer to show people that they are wrong. anarchism is the only legitimate system (the absence of coercion) and it will only work when people have the golden rule written on their heart. to move things in that direction you must do as christ did and return evil with good. it is that simple.

[@philo3838]

Why is he posting a haplogroup map lol? Haplogroups are diverse everywhere and this map just shows the biggest percentage (around 30%), leaving the rest of the haplogroups omitted.

[@Sport4Life]

Because a racist prick who wants everyone to know he is not Arab in any shape or form.

[@JustbeJealousHD]

He's a self hating arab

[@jesss9077]

No, he’s a self admiring Lebanese and there’s nothing wrong with that.

[@BoqPrecision]

His masonic predecessors were the ones who authored the modern concept of Arab/Arabism (Al Urooba) and it will be they to dismantle it, along with Lebanon as a nation state when they deem fit.

[@gch8810]

@@JustbeJealousHD He’s no Arab. Just because he speaks the language doesn’t mean that he is genetically an Arab.

[@augurcybernaut4785]

11:30 takes quote from bible COMPLETELY out of context

[@D.o.l.l.a.r.s]

🥴

[@sourabhvora2164]

decentralised network? Point: I hope you get the functioning of the brain and the neural system.. Biology 101.

[@antoniochang4553]

Switzerland hardly had a civil war. Civilians were not involved: Both sides raised proper armies commanded by Generals. The so called war lasted 2 weeks with fewer than 100 dead, compared to the estimated 150'000 dead in the Lebanese civil war. Furthermore, they were only two sides to the Swiss conflict, whereas Lebanon had 18 well entrenched religions. The swiss Tax is NOT the lowest in western Europe. NNT speaks as it the Swiss system can be replicated to Russia and Lenin was stupid when he was in Switzerland and didn't realise how politically stable the country was. NNT analysis lacks the depts of an expert in politics because politics is not his magisteria.

[@cesteres]

I don't think that was his point at all but you're right he doesn't know all

[@lenaidriss7122]

the language is arabic and not lebanese. Mr. Taleb should have corrected her

[@xxxDJG13xxx]

Taleb has entire arguments dedicated to the idea that Lebanese differs from Arabic

[@raymollyraymolly722]

It's Lebanese, not Arabic. Lebanese accent has a lot of Aramaic words.

[@BoqPrecision]

@@raymollyraymolly722 if there is Lebanese, there is also Yemeni (Sheban + Himyarite) Egyptian (Coptic) Iraqi (Chaldean-babyylonian) etc etc. Still Arabic.

[@raymollyraymolly722]

@@BoqPrecision All of them are Not Arabic and they had their languages and their own culture but after the Islamic, Arabic Invasion they've been forced to call themselves Arabs besides they live in dictatorship regimes while Lebanon is a Democratic country and Lebanese Christians are not Arabs. The official name of Lebanon is the Lebanese Republic not the Arab Republic of Lebanon.

[@BoqPrecision]

@@raymollyraymolly722 That's why Lebanon is in the Arab League, and Beirut one of the major centers for publishing Arabic literature. Please spare me your disinfo, save it for Westerners.

[@PuerinTheHunter]

Wow, for a guy as smart as he seems to be, his understanding of the golden rule is pretty unintelligent.

[@Sport4Life]

That’s because like the perfect “Lebanese”, he’s pretending to understand something to achieve respectability without any kind of substance

[@Sport4Life]

Joe G i wish i weren’t but unfortunately Lebanon has proven me right over and over again. Truly pity the nation

[@tuckerbugeater]

@@Sport4Life I'm sure you're from an ethnicity of geniuses.

[@JulienReszka]

Full of contradictions. Cringe

[@websmink]

The incoherence is laughable. He is a total fraud, I’m addition to being repulsive 🤮 He uses confusion to trick and yet he talks about BS detecting.