Ugly as in “I don't care”
Well-known author Nassim Nicholas Taleb's website is a hodgepodge of text, links and images. It's so ugly that it's beautiful. It's ugly as an attitude. He is too preoccupied to bother about making his presence on the Internet pretty.
I didn't read much of what's written on the page but this footer on the page left a smile on my face:
You are welcome to send me a very brief email at gamma [at] fooledbyrandomness [dotcom]. You would do me a favor if you waited a while as I am not in an online mode and have 1500 neglected letters in my inbox (so please just send mail for pressing matters). Concise messages are much preferable (say a maximum < 40 words) as I will not be able to read long letters. Please do not 1) send me your papers or other “interesting material” to read, 2) ask finance questions (not my specialty, 3) make me to rewrite sections of my books (I write books, not emails), 4) ask for a list of “other interesting books to read”, 5) ask me to provide career or educational advice, 6) send me passages from Tolstoy or the Ecclesiast on luck and randomness, 7) send me the list of typos in my drafts. Note that I almost always reply (but ONLY to short messages), time permitting (but once) –even to nasty emails. Finally, note that, thanks to my new keyboard, I sometimes reply in Arabic, particularly to academics.
[Also please please refrain from offering to “improve” my web site].
I'm sure he doesn't care if others read his page or not. His books do the talking for him.
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