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Comment by VMG | Hacker News Reader

Taleb has absolutely destroyed his credibility by speaking at the "Coingeek" conference and sharing a stage with "Craig Wright"

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Taleb%27ed%2...

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And so what? I haven't watched his talk, but by the summary of it it seems like his talk was consistent with his previous statements. Did Snowden destroy his credibility when he "shared the stage" with the scammer in this video?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hv3UC4lz3oQ

It seems to me that the only thing that matters in most of the "crypto community" is that you are contributing to the price going up. When Musk took away the ability to pay with bitcoins the hate for him in every crypto subreddit went through the roof. No one gave a shit about his reasoning. I have a feeling the hate for Taleb is the same, he is not contributing to the price of bitcoin going up, so he is hated by those who have invested in crypto.

Could you be more specific on how he has "destroyed his credibility", is it simply because he is negative towards crypto?

I could be more specific, but I would risk getting sued by Craig Wright and his friends

I want to leave you with this quote though

> “First ethical rule: If you see fraud and do not say fraud, you are a fraud.”

> ― Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder

So you are actually saying that the reason that Taleb has "destroyed his credibility" is that he shared a stage with Craig Wright, it has nothing to do with anything he has said?

Presumably Taleb wasn't showing up at the conference to promote and profit from whatever Craig Wright is doing these days, rather he was there to throw cold water on the entire crypto industry, so I don't think the indictment you mention really applies.

I've been following Taleb for years. I generally like abrasive style and his calling out of intellectual class. But some of his personal attacks on Bitcoin supporters is a little over the top.

From Twitter:

> [Peter McCormack] Would you discuss your findings in this paper with me. I’d like to explain to you why I think you are wrong. I believe this paper is not objective, rather written from a position of wanting to confirm your recent anti-Bitcoin position.

> [Taleb] Listen, fucking idiot. Go write your own rebuttal. The only good thing your amoeba brain is good at is in harassing mobs, intimidating innocent people who have a different opinion, pushing them to close their twitter accts. So stay quiet on my thread and keep your mouth shut.

I get that he doesn't want to engage in someone on a non-technical level or dumb down his argument, but these exchanges are off-putting. I haven't seem him express such consistent direct vitriol to others he considers fraudsters (central bankers, economists, pop-pyschology authors, journalists, etc). It's just weird that he's been going on a months long rage against people that invest their own money in something they believe in.

His paper might address this, but it seems like support for crypto to be a rather innocuous interest.

[0] https://twitter.com/PeterMcCormack/status/140673441067473715...

Peter McCormack could start by providing evidence for why the paper was wrong, instead was trying to bait Taleb into a Twitter thread that would have done no good to anyone. Good thing for Taleb that he didn't engage.

He did engage by calling him a "fucking idiot"

>>I generally like abrasive style and his calling out of intellectual class.

It’s hard to say “shut the fuck up” and have it be effective.

I think such a statement seems to disengage and also discourage future similar potential engagements.

twitter is definitely not the right medium for discussion of an academic paper, Taleb was right in calling him a fucking idiot

Thinking cryptocurrencies are a scam and then sharing a stage with Craig Wright at his own project's conference (after being warned by many people ahead of time) is a little like thinking Trumpism is a scam and then speaking at a QAnon conference.

It's just a completely nonsensical and baffling thing to do. As someone who generally likes Taleb, it made absolutely no sense to me. Craig Wright is essentially the most archetypal and most egregious cryptocurrency scammer in history, to the point of absurdity, and basically leads a Q-like cult full of delusional followers.

It's not about being negative towards cryptocurrencies. It's the completely contradictory behavior.

Attacking the person without touching on what they are saying is called an "Ad hominem" and is a common logical fallacy:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hominem

That said, Bitcoin is almost purely based consensus reality for most of its existence. It is worth something because others feel it is worth something.

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