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JUST_DO_IT_JUST_SO

                                             May  6, 2008

                                             BLACK_SWAN

 "There is more money in designing
 a shoe than in actually making it:
 Nike, Dell, and Boeing can get paid
 just for thinking, organizing, and
 leveraging their know-how and ideas
 while subcontracted factories in
 developing countries do the grunt
 work and engineers in cultured
 and mathematical states do the
 noncreative technical grind." -- p. 21


A real skeptic who cautions us
frequently about "the narrative                      Myself, I think
fallacy" might leave room for                        Nike is exploiting
doubt that Nike's mastery is in                      a brand that was
"creative design"; one might even                    developed when
doubt that the fad for moving                        they really had made
everything to China is the right                     a breakthrough in
move or just an attempt at being                     price/quality --
mediocre (it's cool to make
mistakes as long as they're the                         They continue to
same as everyone else's mistakes,                       succeed only as
right Taleb?).                                          long as they pump
                                                        all available
    This is the sort of thing                           funds into
    I might point to to                                 advertising,
    support the thesis that                             marketing to
    Taleb is popular because                            shallow, faddish,
    he rationalizes the                                 suckers.
    behavior of the elite
    (while acting like he's
    attacking it).

                                   I see he disparages
                                   the often made
                                   analogy between the
                                   United Stages and
        DANGEROUS_IDEAS            Rome, calling it
                                   "naive": p. 199,
                                   footnote.





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