Kjarninn - 22.08.2013, Blaðsíða 111
„Afer more than twenty years as a transactional
trader and businessman in what I called the „strange
profession,“ I tried what one calls an academic
carreer. And I have something to report – actually
that was the driver behind this idea of antifragility
in life and the dichotomy between the natural
and the alienation of the unnatural. Commerce
is fun, thrilling, lively, and natural: academias as
currently professionalized is none of these. And
for those who think that acedemia is „quieter“ and
emotionally relaxing transition after the volatile
and risktaking business life, a surprise: when in
action, new problems and scares emerge every day to
displace and eliminate the previous day´s headaches,
resentments, and conflicts. A nail displaces another
nail, with astonishing variety. But academics
(particularly in social science) seem to distrust
each other; they live in petty obsessions, envy, and
icycold hatreds, with small snubs developing into
grudges, fossilized over time in the loneliness of
the transaction with a computer screen and the
immutability of their environment. Not to mention
a level of eny I have almost never seen in business....
My experience is that money and transactions
purify relations: ideas and abstract matters like „
recognition“ and „credit“ warp them, creating an
atmosphere of perpetual rivalry. I grew to find people
greedy for credentials nauseating, repulsive, and
untrustworthy.
(Úr formmála, bls 17)
4/05 kjarninn ExIT
brot úr bóKinni
Taleb um af hverju viðskipti
séu skemmtileg og kalli fram
heilbrigða samkeppni en
háskólasamfélagið ali á hinu
andstæða
Smelltu til að horfa á
fyrirlestur Talebs um
tilurð bókarinnar