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DUALISM_TRAP

                                             March   2008
Is Taleb falling into                        May  5, 2008
a dualism trap?
                                             BLACK_SWAN

  Mediocrestan vs   Extremistan
  "no scale"   vs   "scales"
  physical     vs   social or informational (which?)     EXTREME_TRIGGER
  intuitive    vs   cognitive
  narrated     vs   empirical
  instinctive  vs   learned



If you replace these dualisms
with Venn diagrams the immediate
question is "How tightly aligned
are they?"




If they're out of phase,
even a little, then
possibilities arise like         [ref]
using a sophisticated
"learned narrative"
to navigate "Extremistan".
                                   How far can you take this?

                                   A phase angle -- 90 degrees
                                   is "orthogonal", i.e. unrelated.
                                   e.g. left and right-handedness,
                                   vs. good and evil.

                                      On the other hand, we could
                                      have an interesting debate
                                      on the phase angle for
                                      left and right politics.




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