Nassim Nicholas Taleb on the Nations, States, and Scale 7/11/22

Very refreshing discussion, enjoyed Talebs reframing on issues

I call him N. N. TALEB NOW...I LEARN A LOT FROM THIS MAN .

this is so thought provoking.

As a programmer non-linearity is something one has to wrestle with daily, as it is normal for inefficient code to break down as input size increases, such that an efficient approach is often necessary for many things to be possible in the first place regardless of how powerful the hardware you have access too. Big and complex intuitively is a bad sign. Hence a world full of city states/federations of smaller city states has always been intuitively attractive to me due to their ability to adapt and self-correct (re-invent themselves) as global state inevitably changes over time, characteristics programmers intuitively find attractive when thinking of how to structure their code as requirements get larger. However, I couldn't help but want to write about Taleb's comments about the US model. I feel the importance of the organizational layer atop of 'the federation' is being 'skipped' over - that is, how 'self-correcting' the organizational layer is. After all, if that layer isn't effective, it makes longer term sense to just separate and the federation will never emerge in the first place (and probably be outcompeted by larger more 'inefficient' structures that can benefit from economies of scale). The US organizational layer is clearly doing very poorly at the 'self-correcting' aspect - mainly as they are too busy fighting with each other. Meanwhile, when I look at the Chinese, whenever they have a problem, they actually make moves to 'self-correct' due to the willingness to focus on the problem itself due to lack of internal fighting (of course, who knows how things will be in a few decades). I think what I am trying to say is, while I agree with a lot of what Taleb has said, there are additional dimensions that Taleb hasn't addressed fully (or maybe I just missed it). Regardless, it was an interesting watch. Big <3 to both speakers.

Thank you so much for doing this Mr. Taleb

Prof Taleb, thank you for the talk and you are looking quite fit! fantastic!

silver rule = no colonialism = no exploitation = sovereign choices to trade freely or isolate

Have you ever had someone who's a proponent of modern monetary theory on econ talk? Like Warren Mosler or Stephanie Kelton?

43:06 I believe Russ misspoke. Mice are not antifragile vis-à-vis elephants. Mice are robust (contextually).

Right when I was open to reasssess Taleb he starts the podcast proposing etnomicrostates.

I luv Mr. Taleb.💜💜

I feel like the trade off he mentioned 1000 people 1 time or 1 person 1000 times, where he appears to favor the later than the former, contradicts philosophy that he has mentioned in either Random Walk or Black Swan where optionality produces the best result. People move to cities in party because of the serendipitous connections and I can't cite off the top of my head, but believe Taleb has mentioned this in the past. Most of his other ideas seem consistent, that these large systems hide hidden fragility, but I'm having hard time reconciling this one example. Why is that?

Time stamping the video needed

If "a state is a body of laws", then social patterns that thrive under those laws are the organs of that body? Is that what institutions are?

1:00:08 Walk softly and carry a big stick.

40:30 best part

We don't live in a free world & untrue that we don't realise it because we are free.

nothing would be wrong with secession or subdividing. in fact, centralized imposition of one’s will over a large minority is not worthwhile or sustainable.

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