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Taleb's (i)____ certainty in his own ideas is also his great
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23 Dec 2019, 10:55
23 Dec 2019, 10:55
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Taleb's (i)____ certainty in his own ideas is also his greatest weakness and with such self-conviction comes boulder-sized blind spots. He repeatedly disparages the entire discipline of psychology while liberally claiming that others are prone to cognitive (ii) ___, like hindsight bias and the halo effect. While his book rails against the idiocy of predictive systems and anyone claiming (iii) ___, he alleges to have predicted the financial crisis of 2009.
Kudos for the right answer and explanation
| Blank (i) | Blank (ii) | Blank (iii) |
|---|---|---|
| precarious | aphorism | credit |
| unrelenting | quirks | originality |
| flinching | truism | foresight |
Kudos for the right answer and explanation
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Joined: 03 Dec 2019
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Re: Taleb's (i)____ certainty in his own ideas is also his great
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24 Dec 2019, 09:53
24 Dec 2019, 09:53
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Carcass wrote:
Taleb's (i)____ certainty in his own ideas is also his greatest weakness and with such self-conviction comes boulder-sized blind spots. He repeatedly disparages the entire discipline of psychology while liberally claiming that others are prone to cognitive (ii) ___, like hindsight bias and the halo effect. While his book rails against the idiocy of predictive systems and anyone claiming (iii) ___, he alleges to have predicted the financial crisis of 2009.
Kudos for the right answer and explanation
| Blank (i) | Blank (ii) | Blank (iii) |
|---|---|---|
| precarious | aphorism | credit |
| unrelenting | quirks | originality |
| flinching | truism | foresight |
Kudos for the right answer and explanation
The first blank is pretty straightforward ( at least for me it was): Taleb tends to be certain about his ideas which are also his apparent weakness ( example of an oxymoron? ). We need a word that supports Taleb's certainty and self-conviction, only unrelenting matches the idea.
Let's do the third blank next. The last sentence suggests that Taleb's book repudiates the idea of predictive systems, and he even criticizes the prediction of the 2009 financial crisis. This seems to suggest that this blank should be something similar to prediction, so foresight is the best match.
The second blank was the hardest for me to do. I think if you don't know the exact definition of psychology, then this could be difficult. I looked at the hint "liberally claiming", which suggests that Taleb probably defies the idea of rigidity or exactness of rules and principles involving the discipline, and may support the outliers or eccentricity. Quirks do a similar job, because it may mean the unusual characteristics of a human brain in this context.
I hope this makes sense!
Re: Taleb's (i)____ certainty in his own ideas is also his great
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24 Dec 2019, 18:46
24 Dec 2019, 18:46
Taleb's (i)____ certainty in his own ideas is also his greatest weakness and with such self-conviction comes boulder-sized blind spots. He repeatedly disparages the entire discipline of psychology while liberally claiming that others are prone to cognitive (ii) ___, like hindsight bias and the halo effect. While his book rails against the idiocy of predictive systems and anyone claiming (iii) ___, he alleges to have predicted the financial crisis of 2009.
Blank (i): context indicates a +ve word similar to "strong", "unrelenting" fits fine.
I then attacked blank (iii) - it has lots of contextual clues "predictive systems", "predicted" - basically Taleb is attacking "predictions" made - "foresight" best matches
Blank (ii) - tough one, I went with option elimination and contextual clues. Here we are talking about certain so called traits especially within psychology he attacks - so "aphorism","truism" is out of the picture, "quirks" - which mean peculiar characteristics, fit the profile.
Blank (i): context indicates a +ve word similar to "strong", "unrelenting" fits fine.
I then attacked blank (iii) - it has lots of contextual clues "predictive systems", "predicted" - basically Taleb is attacking "predictions" made - "foresight" best matches
Blank (ii) - tough one, I went with option elimination and contextual clues. Here we are talking about certain so called traits especially within psychology he attacks - so "aphorism","truism" is out of the picture, "quirks" - which mean peculiar characteristics, fit the profile.
