A consistent theme of Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s work is the distorting effect caused by appearance. His recently released Skin in the Game was no exception and I’ve noted a number of my favorite insights on this topic in today’s post.
First, Taleb warns the reader about people who are very easily understood when explaining a complicated idea, task or process – although these people appear knowledgeable, they are very likely bullshitting to some degree. This thought does not deny that there are great teachers capable of simplifying difficult concepts. Rather, it acknowledges that certain ideas require a degree of hard work to understand and cautions against looking for the magic bullets that appear to make this effort unnecessary.
A similar thought explores the role of outward appearances in ‘fake work’. For Taleb, criticism of presentation is a clear signal of ‘fake work’ and the more presentation is emphasized the less likely it is that the underlying idea is well understood (1). This belief perhaps explains why he feels a successful person who doesn’t quite look the part might have a richer set of skills than someone whose success is explainable by associations with certain 'appearances' - a well-groomed manner of presentation, other successful people, prestigious institutions. A person who sends no outward signals of success suggests that at the very least this person has demonstrated an ability to overcome certain entrenched prejudices or preferences in a given field to achieve success.
Footnotes / another Paul Graham reference?
1. Am I wrong?
It reminds me of an idea from this Paul Graham essay – "If a statement is false, that's the worst thing you can say about it." The implication here is that since the worst thing anyone can say about an idea is that it’s wrong, criticizing an idea along any other criteria suggests at the minimum that there is some merit to the underlying thought.
