A conversation between Nassim Nicholas Taleb and Stephen Wolfram at the Wolfram Summer School 2021

the stuff I wake up to after falling asleep on youtube is funny as hell

This made me realize just how good Stephen Wolfram is at explaining things

Summary: Stephen Wolfram: "Let's make a physical theory of economics!" Nassim Taleb: "That's precisely the mistake people make" For what it's worth, I agree with both: Yes, let's make one; and no, don't ever bet all your savings on any theory. What a wonderful experience to see two of my heroes together! Please, guys, do more conversations!

Holy fucking shit, that was the best demonstration of the central limit theorem I have ever seen

This conversation is what I envisioned about the future of the internet. I love seeing experts pairing off with other experts, sharing ideas, and actually working through things. We're able to witness the actual process of discovery and the generation of new ideas.

I’ll probably understand 10% of this.

Taleb and Wolfram flexing their libraries on each other

2:10:50 I meant psychology not statistics.

Such a gift to be able to listen to these two. Thank you both

I love how it feel Stephen cares for us the audience so we don't loose track and explains it fast enough and simple enough for me to understand and go along.

Respect Wolfram, despite your great wealth you still patrioticly show British dentistry.

Fantastic watching Mr Taleb tinkering in Mathematica.... such a great way to learn.

Excellent. Science is a hypothesis under constant revision. Very good discussion and rigorous questioning.

Absolutely phenomenal conversation! Meeting of Math & Markets!

Thank you for posting this! It was delightful!

You two are amazing , well received.

Two of my favourite thinkers, what a find!

I find it very reassuring to hear mild-mannered, careful Stephen Wolfram talking about religious scientism in public. Fantastic.

1:53 "a parameter is right on average, but not as a variable. a function of average is not average of function" 42:57 "law of large number is aggregation, what is central limit theorem is aggregation. something aggregates very well, you don't need to know the detail very well, because the overall is going to work out very well. you build portfolio that works very well on the Gaussian world. the problem is that we don't live in that world." 54:51 "our explanation of time dilation in modern times is the universe is computational. you can either use your computation to compute what happens next in time or you can use their computation to move in space. if you use your computation to move in space, then you will have less computation to use to evolve in time, so time will effectively run slower for you. 1:17:18 "if a currency is just there for illegal activities, in other words the currency for fraudsters ransomware and pariah, cannot be a currency. it needs to have a bunch of suckers around them to trade their currency for it to have a value."

@ 2:03:30 "N of 1 is a clinical consideration... N of 100 becomes a statistical problem. N of humanity - a pandemic - is a tail risk problem. And the three are three different disciplines" Pure, classic Taleb.