41 - Nassim Nicholas Taleb on Self-Education and Doing the Math (Plus special guest Bryan Caplan)

Summary: Though what Taleb was really after was a discussion with Bryan Caplan (which starts at 51:50), the philosopher, mathematician, and author most recently of *Skin in the Game* also generously agreed to a conversation with Tyler.  They discuss the ancient Phoenicians and Greco-Roman heritage of Lebanon, philology, genetics, the blockchain, driverless cars, the advantages of Twitter fights, how to think about religion, fancy food vs. Auntie Anne's pretzels, autodidactism, The Desert of the Tartar, why Taleb refused to give a book tour, inverse role models, why math isn't just a young man's game, and more. Transcript with Tyler: https://medium.com/conversations-with-tyler/tyler-cowen-nassim-nicholas-taleb-skin-in-the-game-black-swan-104620da8a57 Transcript with Bryan: https://medium.com/conversations-with-tyler/bryan-caplan-nassim-taleb-tyler-cowen-higher-education-college-fc4b845fe30e Follow the thinkers: www.twitter.com/nntaleb www.twitter.com/bryan_caplan www.twitter.com/tylercowen More CWT goodness: Facebook: www.facebook.com/cowenconvos Twitter: www.twitter.com/cowenconvos Email: www.mercatus.org/newsletters