I came out of the meeting realizing that only military people deal with randomness with genuine, introspective intellectual honesty—unlike academics and corporate executives using other people's money. This does not show in war movies, where they are usually portrayed as war-hungry autocrats. The people in front of me were not the people who initiate wars. Indeed, for many, the successful defense policy is the one that manages to eliminate potential dangers without war, such as the strategy of bankrupting the Russians through the escalation in defense spending. When I expressed my amazement to Laurence, another finance person who was sitting next to me, he told me that the military collected more genuine intellects and risk thinkers than most if not all other professions. Defense people wanted to understand the epistemology of risk. [...] Each of the participants gave his presentation and listened to those of the others. I came to discuss Black Swans, and I intended to tell them that the only thing I know is that we know precious little about [Black Swans], but that it was their property to sneak up on us, and that attempts at Platonifying them led to additional misunderstandings. Military people can understand such things, and the idea became recently prevalent in military circles with the expression unknown unknown (as opposed to the known unknown) --Nassim Nicholas Taleb, The Black Swan.
Ну надо же. Математик. Пробабилист. Квант. Ливанец. И вот такое писать... Такое писать... Как не стыдно... Какой позор...
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Date: 2007-10-12 12:16 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2007-10-12 04:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-10-12 04:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-10-12 04:32 pm (UTC)жизнифразы такой докатился): хотя я и не предполагаю в военных (подавляющем большинстве их) вообще никакой глубины мысли, но не исключаю, что какие-то вещи они могут понимать лучше, чем носители иных профессиональных фильтров. И во тут, думаю, Т. был очарован тем, что в некоторых ситуациях их, военных, не интересует оценка вероятности, а интересует исключительно размер ущерба. И вот этот момент затмил все остальное.no subject
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Date: 2007-10-12 04:43 pm (UTC)