Nassim Nicholas Taleb vs. Less Wrong

To me, Taleb’s writing are much more than about system or institution. At a pretty high level Taleb’s writing are about the nature and limits of knowledge, which ends up touching almost every aspect of modern life.

I find Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s (NNT) writing to be in sharp contrast with the paradigm of LessWrong(LW) and associates.

• LW and NNT both knows we are wrong and we cannot help being wrong, hence LW wants you to become “less wrong” though NNT wants you to make sure that your mistakes don’t hurt you too badly or better change the game such that mistakes help you.
• LW and NNT both knows prediction is hard. LW talks about predicting better thought NNT says that you cannot predict and you don’t even know that you cannot predict so better changing the game such that there is no need to predict.
• LW wants to understand it better and understand it all. NNT wants to live happily in a world he doesn’t understand.
• LW says “all models are wrong but some are useful”. NNT says “all models are wrong but some are harmful”
• LW wants you to expand your boundaries as far as you can. A lot of talk is about optimizing things, be smarter, be stronger and so on so forth. NNT asks you to keep it small and beautiful.
• LW wants you to do “the most good you can”, NNT wants you to prevent harm and call out frauds.