From Amazon..
"In one of the many humorous anecdotes that seem to comprise this entire book, Taleb recounts how he learned his extreme skepticism from his first boss, a French gentleman trader who insisted that he should not worry about the fluctuating values of economic indicators. (Indeed, Taleb proudly declares that, to this day, he remains blissfully ignorant of supposedly crucial "indicators" like housing starts and consumer spending. This is a shocking statement from a guy whose day job is managing a hedge fund.) Even if these "common knowledge" indicators are predictive of anything (dubious - see above), they are useless to you because everyone else is already accounting for them. They are "white swans," or common sense. Regardless of their magnitude, white swans are basically irrelevant to the trader - they have already been impounded into the market. In this environment, one can only profitably concern oneself with those bets which others are systematically ignoring - bets on those highly unlikely, but highly consequential events that utterly defy the conventional wisdom. What Taleb ought to worry about, the Frenchman warned, was not the prospect of a quarter-percent rise in interest rates, but a plane hitting the World Trade Center! "
From pg 297
"Snub your destiny .. Missing a train is only painful if you run after i! Likewise, not matching the idea of success others expect of you is only painful if that is what you are seeking.. You stay above the rat race and the pecking order, not outside of it, if you do so by choice. Quitting a high paying position, if it is your decision, will seem a better payoff than the utility of the money involved. This is the first step of the stoic throwing a first letter word at fat. You have far more control over your life if you decide on the criterion by yourself... Be aggressive.... be the one to resign..if you have the guts... It is more difficult to be the loser in a game you set up yourself. In Black Swan terms, this means you are only exposed to the improbable if you let it control you. You always control what you do, so let this be your end.
I am sometimes taken aback by how people can have a miserable day or get angry because they feel cheated by a bad meal, a bad coffee, a social rebuff, or a rude reception... we are quick to forget that being alive is an extraordinary piece of good luck, a remote event, a chance occurrence of monstrous proportion... so stop sweating the small stuff.. Dont be like the ingrate who got a castle as a present and complains about the mildew in the bathroom... remember you are a black swan...
