The concept has a specific definition, but yeah, many people just use it as an excuse to call their opponents idiots. Not sure how much to blame Taleb for that, and how much it’s just that every concept gets diluted when the masses notice it. Would different words be more resistant against misinterpretation, but perhaps less memetically virulent? Probably yes; calling your opponents “idiots” is just too tempting.
The originally intended meaning is something like “people who fail/refuse to notice second-order effects, and often fail to do even the most obvious sanity checks, because they are completely focused on the fact that their first-order conclusions are supported by ScienceTM”. (Imagine a less stupid version of someone claiming that it impossible to clean up their room, because it is a scientifically proven fact that entropy always increases. But the statement would typically be made about e.g. economy.)
Taleb—who is an idiot in some different ways—does not match this. He has eyes on the ball; his goal is to increase the sales of his books, and he is doing that skillfully.
Hm, I wonder what would be better words for the concept. A “first-order intellectual”?
I guess that disqualifies him as an intellectual? But when he does the same thing on purpose that the people he’s accusing do by accident—ignore any subtleties or higher-order effects and just go with the simple idea—I submit that it makes him part of the category he’s described. If you don’t want to be grouped with the people you’re insulting, stay well clear of behaving like them.
The concept has a specific definition, but yeah, many people just use it as an excuse to call their opponents idiots. Not sure how much to blame Taleb for that, and how much it’s just that every concept gets diluted when the masses notice it. Would different words be more resistant against misinterpretation, but perhaps less memetically virulent? Probably yes; calling your opponents “idiots” is just too tempting.
The originally intended meaning is something like “people who fail/refuse to notice second-order effects, and often fail to do even the most obvious sanity checks, because they are completely focused on the fact that their first-order conclusions are supported by ScienceTM”. (Imagine a less stupid version of someone claiming that it impossible to clean up their room, because it is a scientifically proven fact that entropy always increases. But the statement would typically be made about e.g. economy.)
Taleb—who is an idiot in some different ways—does not match this. He has eyes on the ball; his goal is to increase the sales of his books, and he is doing that skillfully.
Hm, I wonder what would be better words for the concept. A “first-order intellectual”?
I guess that disqualifies him as an intellectual? But when he does the same thing on purpose that the people he’s accusing do by accident—ignore any subtleties or higher-order effects and just go with the simple idea—I submit that it makes him part of the category he’s described. If you don’t want to be grouped with the people you’re insulting, stay well clear of behaving like them.