‘Black Swan’ Author Slams SBF for Poor Logic Thinking, Here’s Big Criterion

Prominent scholar and risk manager Nassim Nicholas Taleb, famous for his books “Black Swan,” “Antifragile” and others, has taken to X social media app to again take a jab at the former CEO of the bankrupt FTX exchange Sam Bankman-Fried. Here’s what Taleb accuses SBF of this time.

“People like SBF know a bit of statistics but don’t understand processes”

Taleb cited a tweet with a quote from a book by Michael Lewis “Going Infinite” that has just come out. The book tells the story of Sam Bankman-Fried, how his management led to the FTX collapse with investors and customers losing billions of U.S. dollars in crypto.

In this quote, SBF criticizes William Shakespeare. SBF claimed basically that since at the end of the 16th century, according to statistics, there were probably maximum 10 million people who could read, the world’s greatest writer could hardly be born at that time. He also claims that Shakespeare has many “failings.”

Taleb responded to that, stating that “the problem with pple like SBF is knowing a tiny bit of statistics to parrot abt it, but not understanding processes (that is, dynamics across time).” He also reminded his followers, just in case, that “Shakespeare has survived nearly half a millennium of filtering by time.”

Taleb finished his tweet, stating that the former crypto tycoon would have flunked his job interview.

The problem with pple like SBF is knowing a tiny bit of statistics to parrot abt it, but not understanding processes (that is, dynamics across time).
Shakespeare has survived nearly half a millennium of filtering by time.

To Jane Street: He would have flunked my job interview. https://t.co/igQqqf9nPB

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb (@nntaleb) October 6, 2023

The renowned author than also agreed with a comment made by X user Constantin Gurdgiev, who likened SBF to Bitcoin advocates, basically leveling SBF (who failed to understand Shakespeare and saw his FTX exchange crash, going to prison for defrauding investors) with the rest of the Bitcoin community.

The X user wrote: “Gives one a lot of comfort to know these folks are into ‘mathematically unbreakable’ currency… when their statistical/probabilistic and logical skills literally topped at Statistics 305.” To that Taleb’s response was “101.”

101

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb (@nntaleb) October 7, 2023

Taleb’s and Kiyosaki’s views on Bitcoin and gold clash

Recently, Taleb posted a bit of criticism about the view of the renowned financial guru, author of “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” Robert Kiyosaki about USD and gold. Kiyosaki has been constantly (since as early as 2020 actually) tweeting that he expects USD to crash, gold and silver to surge and markets to crash. Kiyosaki believes that USD has now become worthless since over the past few years, the Fed Reserve has printed trillions of dollars out of thin air to support the economy and inject cash in it.

Taleb argues with that, stating that USD has been pretty stable against gold and silver over the past 50 years, in particular during the hard times of the U.S. economy in 1979-1981. Besides, the gurus have totally opposite opinions regarding the world’s leading cryptocurrency. While Kiyosaki recommends everyone to buy Bitcoin (gold and silver too, believing that all three are safe haven assets), Taleb keeps criticizing BTC, calling it a “destined to die fad” and “tumor.”

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