He is not afraid to criticize anyone that’s for sure. I like his outsider’s perspective most of the time, but sometimes it veers into conspiracy-theory land. His self-assuredness is through the roof — even in his books — which made it a little hard to get through Antifragile.

What I absolutely can’t tolerate is his anti-science views. Rational Wiki has a nice page on all the ways he goes against the mainstream scientific views. Overall, I’m conflicted about Taleb: I think he’s had a few good ideas — Black Swans, Extremistan, Antifragility, Via Negativa — but his stance against anything resembling “the establishment” even when that establishment is all of modern science is indefensible. I’ve read The Black Swan and Antifragile, but I can’t see myself finishing the Incerto because of these views.