In societies, minorities can come to dictate the rules to the majority.

This usually happens because of asymmetry or because when the majority is either too flexible, too accommodating, or too indifferent.

A case of asymmetry is between smokers and non-smokers.
A smoker can sit in ...

It’s perfectly rational to overestimate some tail risks because you can’t consider them in isolation. 

Driving after 2 glasses of wine once will not be extremely dangerous, but doing so every day is.

When you measure tail risks in the laboratory you only consider one tail risks at a t...

it’s not the poor who are actually envious of the rich and it’s not the poor who first embrace communist movements.

It’s usually the bourgeois and the intellectuals and the clerical class who first embrace communism. It’s because of jealousy.

Employees display submission by going through years of personal deprivation.
Givin' up 9 hours of one’s time for years, every day is the equivalent of domestication.
And showing up on time every day is the sign of an obedient, housebroken dog.

The question is whether you want to be a ...

And when in doubt, it’s better not to mess with these systems. Starting a war to implement democracies is an example of messing with a complex system.

Clueless politicians compare a local dictator not with the local alternatives but with a Norwegian prime minister.

These people keep s...

You often hear people saying that you are more likely to die by X silly thing -ie.: coconut falling- than by terrorist attacks or Ebola outbreaks but that makes no sense.

People dying because of falling coconuts or people who die by drowning in their bathtub will never double from one year ...