1. “[Taleb’s] antifragility not only resembles Game, it describes Game, and to a certain extent, it even explains why Game is so effective.”
2. “At that moment, I wondered if I was the only one of my group who hated with everything in my heart the slimy hypocrites around me.”
3. “The best map ever made of America’s racial segregation libertarian bubbles.”
4. “This threatpoint gives leverage to women in a marriage, giving her unilateral control over the future of the commitment.”
5. Commenter to Amanjaw Marcuntte: “In other words, Massachusetts profiles.”
6. “Brookings, like any not-for-profit organization, survives through contributions. And it is a fact of life that these organizations cannot afford to do many, if any, studies that are counter to the goals of the donors.“
7. “and that’s the part that the happy leftists are missing from their thinking [sic] about epigenetics. epigenetics is obviously some sort of adaptation… so it must be coded for in our genes somewhere. that methylation happens to alter the expression of genes isn’t some miracle, however amazing it may be. it’s coded for.”
8. “If she moved into your apartment sans a ring, you’re better off than married folk in the happiness department, new research suggests.”
9. Opt out of global data surveillance programs.
10. “They had every Facebook post I had ever made in a huge file, along with all my wife’s information, and parent’s information,” As Vox says, your two choices when under assault by a power-hungry Big Brother 1984-ish surveillance state are either go dark, or go disinformation. Or, like CH, do both.
get rid of facebook. you will be better for it.
aka Friendbook, or Chickbook.
You know you’re alpha if you don’t have a facebook. If you do have one, it has that blank silhouette profile pic and a lot of unanswered friend requests from girls you’ve been intimate with.
You know you’re a lesser alpha if your timeline has almost nothing on it… and what few things you do have, contain a lot of likes for no apparent reason, including from stalkers who “like” everything you put up no matter what it is. You friend girls only if you know them really well, and don’t hesitate to unfriend them if they seem blasé about you. You never use Facebook chat, except maybe to set up plans to meet with girls on another continent in real life, and they don’t have Skype.
You know you’re a greater beta if you put up funny or interesting pics and links, but rarely status updates, unless it’s a major life event. You do friend girls on facebook, but only after getting their numbers. Any girl you get intimate with immediately tries to friend you. You prefer to get girls’ numbers, but have actually managed to get with a girl in real life using Facebook chat.
You know you’re beta if you friend girls on facebook instead of getting their numbers, and then try to get dates with them on Facebook chat.
You know you’re a lesser beta if you compliment girls all the time on their stupid photos. You get oneitis on a girl and try to befriend all her friends.
You know you’re omega if you’re a dude and you write constant statuses about your emotional state, like chicks do. Lesser omega if you’re constantly whining about how you hate your life and you’re such a nice guy and ask why chicks are so mean to you while you give them everything.
Number 8 was tackled pretty well by the first comment on that page:
“I wonder if they adjusted for time together. But that would be hard, and that’s the point:
Cohabitors are pretty much at the height of fun in their relationship. As soon as things get hard or boring, they leave. Marriage includes lots of hard stuff, so of course they’re less happy than people who live in perpetual puppy love.”
Anti-fragility is garbage, but I understand the appeal to those who lack a background in quantitative finance. The application to game is probably correct but investment strategies that maximize optionallity empirically perform very poorly.
How did “quantitative finance” work out for Long-Term Capital Management? Talib eats quant dorks like you for breakfast. He has nothing but contempt for your Bury The Guesswork approach, which is why he gets under your skin, which is why he wins while you are pleasuring your micropeens with slide rules.
“I understand the appeal” of the false confidence that quantification promises. We can quantify everything! Even risk! We can banish danger forever, no need for courage anymore. Thus Spake Reverse Polish Notation.
Matt
Are there any investment funds that succeed with Taleb’s approach? Oh sorry, Taleb doesn’t really have an approach. But what he does well is to debunk some faulty statistical and logical aruuments.
Everything he says is second nature to any decent quant. He’s debunking the sort of wrong arguments that would rightfully get a job candidate booted before even having an office interview.
Antifragile by Taleb is a must-read
On Page 1 he says “This a book for how to come out on top in life”
This guy is also a Cathedral attacker – it’s all over the book
Applies especially to those spheres of life given to “Extremistan” – Winner Take All. This includes human economic affairs, such as business and money making. And yes the activity of picking up women – Game, as Vox seems to agree
I may be in for a security clearance. The “Who’s Uncle Elmer?” phase should be entertaining. Visualize Kramer getting interrogated.
Nassim Nicholas Talib is excellent all around, I recommend him frequently. Not just Antifragile, but his first two books, Fooled by Randomness and The Black Swan (no, it has nothing to do with the Natalie Portman lesbo ballet movie). He isn’t always right, but he has an awesomely aggressive attitude when it comes to truth seeking, and that makes up for it.
In the academic world of faggy NPR-voiced philosphasters, he comes in like Aristocles (later called “Plato,” or “broad” for his shoulders), and tells the fey chickenmen who hunch and whisper in dusty libraries what’s what. He is a man philosophizing, a rare phenomenon today. He began his life in applied wisdom, of course, as a trader, which has made all the difference.
He’s swarthy and not religious, but he does come from Christian Lebanon, so he’s not a run-of-the-mill ululating muzzie raghead.
Matt
I’m looking for some advice to help me with my situation:
I’ve been dating a girl for two and a half years now and recently I’ve noticed her complaining/griping about stupid things and not wanting to have sex as often.
I recently started reading CH and realized that I’m habitually committing pretty much every beta-blunder there is. I feel bad when I upset her inadvertently and then apologize/beg for forgiveness. I always play it straight when she asks me questions, and I’ve been playing by her rules, not instilling dread, &c.
Based on the first part of the following post my read of the situation is that she resents me/is no longer attracted to me: http://heartiste.wordpress.com/2011/12/21/when-a-shit-test-isnt-a-shit-test/
“Treating her behavior like an extended shit test may actually backfire if you haven’t prepped her for your transformation to a man willing to display his balls.”
So anyway my question is what is the best way for me to salvage this situation. How do I prep her for this transformation so I can begin gaming my girlfriend to win back her respect and desire for me? (I love her and she meets the “Quality Girl” criteria so I think she’s worth the long-term effort) I realize that there isn’t a quick-fix switch I can flip on–I’m more looking for a general approach or way to proceed in order to re-establish the polarity in our relationship and get her chasing me again.
The census map thing, as well as Obama’s push to find segregated neighborhoods, is nothing but a repeat of the data from the 2010 census. Here:
http://www.census.gov/2010census/popmap/
http://www.census.gov/people/
Lots of great information tnere. Now it’s easy to know where the compatible neighborhoods are, thanks Census!
I guess anything with links gets moderated. I linked to the cool map and data at the census website. Here’s my post without the links:
The census map thing, as well as Obama’s push to find segregated neighborhoods, is nothing but a repeat of the data from the 2010 census at census dot gov . Here:
(links redacted)
Lots of great information tnere. Now it’s easy to know where the compatible neighborhoods are, thanks Census!
And, Manboobs gonna manboob:
http://whatever.scalzi.com/2013/08/26/to-the-dudebro-who-thinks-hes-insulting-me-by-calling-me-a-feminist/