Thread by @allenf32

friends, I am proud to announce I have made Taleb shit himself.

and we are barely past the starter in this gourmet meal.

a thread 🧵

earlier today I not-very-cryptically announced that I was nearing completion of an essay that shows him up to be a bullying, cowardly, bullshitting charlatan.

2/n

https://twitter.com/allenf32/status/1246048143843696640

apparently, I'm a really big deal, because word got to him and he blocked me.

I can only assume he is now frantically trying to slander me in a way that I will be unable to rebut to or even see.

3/n

here's why that is hilarious:

the essay is about his unacceptable behaviour on twitter. you will have to wait for publication to get the main course on this, folks.

but here is the blurb:

4/n

Taleb, the writer, is a genius. not only in terms of his obvious intellect, but his astonishing ability to make accessible and intuitive extremely complex topics.

Taleb, the tweeter, is a bullying, cowardly, bullshitting charlatan.

5/n

He routinely inserts himself into exchanges in areas in which he clearly has little to no understanding in order to shout about his one big idea as if it applied to absolutely every single discussion any two people have ever had. he calls world experts in topics ...

6/n

... he knows nothing about 'bullshit vendors', charlatans, hacks, frauds, etc., sets his army of sycophantic fans on them to do the same, and then blocks them so they can't reply.

7/n

I go into about 8 different examples of him doing this recently - all in extremely niche areas in which the person he starts slandering knows much, much more than him. and I know much more than him, but less than the expert.

8/n

he is caught out, it's obvious he's full of shit and doesn't understand the topic at all, and rather than admitting fault, he just disappears.

then he pops up somewhere else and does it again.

9/n

I want to put a stop to this. not just because it's extremely annoying and terrible behaviour, but because it's such a shame that it is him specifically doing it.

but because Taleb, the writer, is brilliant. that's the opportunity cost of Taleb, the tweeter.

10/n

and no, it isn't just "his technique" for doing good and getting the truth out. if he were actually right about the issue, that might have some merit.

but I can prove he is full of shit. I can prove it.

on 8 different topics.

11/n

the inspiration for this was that he seems to have gone out his way to do his little infantile routine in every single domain in which I am an expert.

I'm not an expert in that many things, but i know and i can prove that when he wades into these, he is full of shit.

12/n

this essay is coming out soon. get excited.

but that isn't even the best bit. part of the essay is a prediction of how he will react which I will post as a cryptographic hash. if it turns out I am absolutely right, I will post the preimage at a later date.

13/n

HE HAS ALREADY DONE SOME OF THESE THINGS!

I am already winning. that's why he is shitting himself.

I guarantee it, he doesn't know what to do. does he try to work out who I am? does he try to figure out my motives? does he slander me? does he delete tweets? which tweets?

14/n

it doesn't matter because I have the URLs and I have the screenshots.

I wasn't going to go live with this for a very long time anyway because he is doing incredible work wrt the coronavirus.

to stop shitting on each other for just a moment ...

15/n

... he has saved millions of lives. I go out my way to say that several times in the essay. those circumstances are different.

normally, he eschews civil discourse and alienates everybody involved. In a deadly pandemic, there is no time for civil discourse.

16/n

risk illiterate pseudo-intellectuals need to be screamed into silence so that lives can be saved. if dangerous idiots can be alienated, great. long may they ponder their cosmic circumstances out the way of those who know what they are doing.

17/n

so I will still stick to this plan.

but you know what? maybe I'll wait even longer. maybe I'll make him sweat.

maybe I will post the hash and timestamp it right now so the predictions are live even though the essay is not?

18/n

maybe I won't block him so he can see this.

do you think he's looking?

I think he's looking.

19/n

are you interested now, @clairlemon, @PTetlock, @SamHarrisOrg, @balajis?

shit just got real. watch this space.

FINITO.