I've become invested with this symbolic power. It really does transcend what I'm actually doing and what I actually deserve.

You get steely nerves playing poker.

Economy is not baseball, where the game is always played by the same rules.

When you get into statistical analysis, you don't really expect to achieve fame. Or to become an Internet meme. Or be parodied by 'The Onion' - or be the subject of a cartoon in 'The New Yorker.' I guess I'm kind of an outlier there.

I think people feel like there are all these things in our lives that we don't really have control over.

Shakespeare's plays often turn on the idea of fate, as much drama does. What makes them so tragic is the gap between what his characters might like to accomplish and what fate provides them.

Distinguishing the signal from the noise requires both scientific knowledge and self-knowledge.