Ali Sattari

“Bureaucracy is a construction by which a person is conveniently separated from the consequences of his or her actions.”
― Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life

“A wealthy CEO could justify his or her advantages to a lower paid worker on a factory floor as:
"I am not worthier then you nor morally deserving of the privileged position I hold. My generous compensation package is simply an incentive necessary to induce me and others like me, to develop our talents for the benefit of all. It is not your fault that you lack the talent society needs, nor is it my doing that I have such talents in abundance. This is why some of my income is taxed away to help people like you. I do not morally deserve my superior pay and position, but I am entitled to them under fair rules of social cooperation, and remember, you and I would have agreed to these rules had we thought about the matter before we knew who would land on top and whom at the bottom. So please do not resent me, my privileges make you better off than you would otherwise be, the inequality you find galling is for your own good.”
― Michael J. Sandel, The Tyranny of Merit: What's Become of the Common Good?

“In today’s world, terrorists are the most significant practitioners of the art of inducing availability cascades. With a few horrible exceptions such as 9/11, the number of casualties from terror attacks is very small relative to other causes of death. Even in countries that have been targets of intensive terror campaigns, such as Israel, the weekly number of casualties almost never came close to the number of traffic deaths. The difference is in the availability of the two risks, the ease and the frequency with which they come to mind. Gruesome images, endlessly repeated in the media, cause everyone to be on edge. As”
― Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow

“The difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything,”
― Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life