Financial institutions have been merging into a smaller number of very large banks. Almost all banks are interrelated. So the financial ecology is swelling into gigantic, incestuous, bureaucratic banks-when one fails, they all fall. We have moved from a diversified ecology of small banks, with varied lending policies, to a more homogeneous framework of firms that all resemble one another. True, we now have fewer failures, but when they occur... I shiver at the thought.

By all means, avoid words—threats, complaints, justification, narratives, reframing, attempts to win arguments, supplications; avoid words!

Let me be more aggressive: we are largely better at doing than we are at thinking, thanks to antifragility. I’d rather be dumb and antifragile than extremely smart and fragile, any time.

I remind myself of Einstein's remark that common sense is nothing but a collection of misconceptions acquired by age 18.

They will envy you for your success, your wealth, for your intelligence, for your looks, for your status - but rarely for your wisdom.

I always remind myself that what one observes is at best a combination of variance and returns, not just returns.

Charm is the ability to insult people without offending them; nerdiness the reverse