Talk:Nassim Nicholas Taleb

message: Many parts of this article rely, to varying degrees, on self-published sources (e.g. from Taleb's own website) and original research (e.g. exegesis of Taleb's books without reference to a secondary source). Large parts of the Ideas and Theories section, for example, seem to be original research. This is poor practice when dealing with the biography of a living figure, and an author at that. I think this is self-evident, although Limit-theorem seems to disagree. I am open to different views regarding how these shortcomings should be signposted within the article, but I am confident that something needs to be done here. Pubcrawler2000 (talk) 11:28, 2 April 2022 (UTC)
replies: text: There is something I fail to understand about your claims. Many of what you call "self-published" is in fact in newspaper articles and you removed Bloomberg which is the main source of financial news as non reliable. And by your criterion 'all" wiki articles would be OR. Furthermore, as per wiki: 
So really I fail to see any logic to some of your removals. If you have doubt about the authenticity of the claims you can discuss further, but you need to understand that Wiki is an encyclopedia and claims that Bloomberg is self-published are not constructive. Limit-theorem (talk) 13:14, 2 April 2022 (UTC)

text: I added 3 academic references to your text above and do not want to load the page with references. I invite you to improve the page by doing more research. Most of these are well cited Taleb has a lot of citations. But note the subtleties of context where a text about an author is technically, not self-reference in a bad way. Limit-theorem (talk) 12:08, 3 April 2022 (UTC)
replies: text:  Can you provide any independent secondary or tertiary sources that validate Taleb's 2016 commencement appearance in Beirut as a significant event or that it introduced any ideas that RS have discussed and contextualized as being significant? This is an egregiously primary-sourced  reference that fails NPOV and WEIGHT and should be removed. Thanks. SPECIFICO talk 14:51, 3 April 2022 (UTC)
replies: text:  In general, there are a lot of diploma mills declaring they gave someone an honorary doctorate, without the person knowing. In this case no such problem because both Taleb and the university acknowledge (it looks like Taleb posted it himself) and there is a video of the event, and the university is a source as to the diplomas it gave. However I do not find that quote representative of Taleb's work (it is in fact confusing), so I would remove it and post the honorary doctorate in the honors section. Limit-theorem (talk) 16:44, 3 April 2022 (UTC)
replies: text:  I will go with the consensus but I think that one must not ignore the relevance of AUB. PopulationGeneticsLevant (talk) 19:37, 3 April 2022 (UTC)
thread_title: Self-published sources and original research

message: There are a few issues with these two lines in Praise and Criticism. Firstly, the whole story is of questionable relevance - the crux of it seems to be that Taleb got a minor correction in a newspaper, which is generally not newsworthy. Secondly, the sources cited are a Huffington Post contributor (note that such contributors are considered generally unreliable as per WP:RSP) and a Reuters blog post. Reuters of course is perfectly citable, but there isn't any clarity on whether blogs hosted by Reuters are. Thirdly, I am doubtful that this exchange, if relevant in the first place, belongs in a section discussing praise and criticism.
In May 2009 interview for GQ magazine, journalist Will Self authored an article in which Taleb said his hedge fund "made $20 bln for our clients." On June 30 that year, Reuters published emails showing that Taleb explicitly corrected Self.
Pubcrawler2000 (talk) 18:40, 3 April 2022 (UTC)
replies: text:  Interesting story. It is indeed totally irrelevant and looks like it was put in here initially to blame Prof. Nassim for the correction. PopulationGeneticsLevant (talk) 19:37, 3 April 2022 (UTC)
thread_title: GQ and Will Self

message: Wikipedia's policy is that self-published sources, especially those published on social media, are not to be used - or at least, are to be considered inadequate, hence better source needed - only if: the material is neither unduly self-serving nor an exceptional claim; it does not involve claims about third parties; it does not involve claims about events not directly related to the source; there is no reasonable doubt as to its authenticity; and the article is not based primarily on such sources. 
The source in question, a Tweet posted by Taleb on 27 September 2019, reads As an Orthodox, today was the second most important day for me (after my baptism). The highest ranking person in Orthodoxy, His Holiness Bartholomeos 1 Patriarch of Constantinople, gave me his blessing & a small gift. It was on a plane out of Constantinopolis and includes a picture of the two men described (Taleb and His Holiness). 
The source is not self-serving; nor is it an exceptional claim on account of Taleb's provision of evidence; nor does it involve claims about third parties that might be considered high-stakes (there is no picture of the small gift mentioned by Taleb, nor is this relevant to the point of his faith); nor does it involve claims about events not directly related to the source; nor is there any reasonable doubt as to its authenticity; nor is the article based on such sources. 
So, I think it might be reasonably stated in this article that Taleb is an Orthodox Christian, using his own claim as evidence, without the need for the better source needed claim. 213.205.198.204 (talk) 16:33, 25 September 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  Removal of ''better source needed'' claim re: Taleb's Orthodox Christian faith  

message: 'is parents were of Antiochian Greek descent,[17] holding French citizenship.' Thewriter006 (talk) 11:21, 8 November 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  Is Nassim French? 

message: Unless Taleb got his Master's degree when he was 10 years old, it is impossible that he graduated from the University of Paris, as this institution disappeared on December 1970.
It was then split into 13 independent universities, from "Université Paris I - Panthéon-Sorbonne" to "Université Paris XIII - Paris-Nord".
It is critical to clarify from which of these 13 Parisan universities he graduated, as they were not created equal. In particular, "Université Paris VI - Pierre-et-Marie-Curie" and "Université Paris XI - Paris-Sud" were highly ranked in mathematics.
Also, unlike @24.213.126.54 said in the page history (7 August 2023‎), the 13 universities did not "continued functionally as Université de Paris, with divisions I, II,..., IX".
1) They were perfectly independent institutions.
2) They were referred to as "Université de Paris I", "Université de Paris II", ... and were never called "divisions". Karson Paisley (talk) 19:11, 7 August 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: I read somewhere Dr Nassim say he first studied philosophy and law, then switched to economics then to econometrics. He said he did not focus on mathematics before option trading.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.196.135.46 (talk) 18:14, 9 August 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Incorrect alma mater