Although its unfair to nitpick one paragraph since its out of context from the rest of the chapter/book, reading the aging paragraph makes me see where you are coming from with all this.
The guy can't help himself. It's like reading a stock ticker (except its Taleb's stream of thought), flashing across with all the different thoughts that don't necessarily correlate with each other. You think there's some relevancy there but its hard to pick it out in the moment.
I will say though, Taleb reader's are surely great Words with Friends or Scrabble players. You just can't help picking up a few new words.
I don't agree with your 'vile idiot' statement but I mostly concur with your thoughts. I hope that you don't let Taleb affect your senescence.
Infact his goal is to alienate readers like the commenter above by writing in the old literary style. We are so accustomed to modern non-fiction following Malcolm Gladwell like structure for 10 year olds that we've lost the art of appreciating the meandering, scattershot expression of ideas in a literary style. In short, his filtering works.
no, it's just bad writing. meandering nonsense is never good writing, though perhaps it boosts your ego to feel like you are part of a special club (of millions) that understands his ramblings.
The guy can't help himself. It's like reading a stock ticker (except its Taleb's stream of thought), flashing across with all the different thoughts that don't necessarily correlate with each other. You think there's some relevancy there but its hard to pick it out in the moment.
I will say though, Taleb reader's are surely great Words with Friends or Scrabble players. You just can't help picking up a few new words.
I don't agree with your 'vile idiot' statement but I mostly concur with your thoughts. I hope that you don't let Taleb affect your senescence.