If you need to learn how to argue intelligently, you don’t have a real argument;
if you need to promote, you don’t have anything to sell;
if you need to network, you don’t have anything to offer;
if you need to prepare for a lecture, you don’t have anything to lecture about;
and if you need to learn how to improve your style, you don’t have anything to write about.Truth is direct; it screams and doesn’t meander.
By Nicholas Taleb
New European 
Rather simplistic to my taste. I do prefer lecturers who actually thought in advance what and to whom they are going to lecture about.
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Michael: have you considered the difference between “need to” and “want to?”
Mayby this piece of Taleb’s wisdom isn’t so shallow after all 😉
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There are several ways to read this. If your writing needs an instruction on how to read it perhaps you need to learn how to improve your style.
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Personally I find Nicholas Talrb’s style bold, entertaining, clever, controversial and thought provoking. It took him years to find a publisher for his first book because it was highly unconventional in style, contents and intent.
Do you think that the fact that you can read a text in several ways is necessarily a flaw?
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No, but I disagree with his arguments and since I found your response sarcastic I’ve been sarcastic myself. It’s actually something I try to avoid, so I’m not too pleased with myself here. But hey who’s perfect?
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Sorry. I did not mean to sound sarcastic.
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