Nassim Nicholas Taleb Recent and Forthcoming Seminars and Talks

(combination of Literary & Technical Discussions)

 

 

AppleMark(No, I am not interested in being a speaker-bureau commodity with my picture on a catalogue next to “thought leaders” quacks. I am interested in spreading my idea(s), not in peddling goods and services [and not in NETWORKING]. I get thousands of invitations a year and pick those that gather thoughtful and thinking audiences, preferably poor in funding. I donate all academic honoraria to universities and research centers, with the exception of those offered by business schools (which I use to invite my friends to dinner)).

For lecture requests, contact: gamma@[the domain name of this site]. Please put “Lecture request” in the Subject. You can contact me directly or through one of the main bureaus.

Note on the picture: I hope that I don’t look so much (physically) like Umberto Eco (30 years and 20 kilos away).

   



Ciudad de Las Ideas, Puebla, Mexico, Nov 6, 2009, Debate on religion with Daniel Dennett, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris. I take the side that religion has very little to do with "belief", life has little to do with belief --rather decision payoffs (rather probabilistically), and that the role of religion is to convey the wisdom of the ages (tacit "type 1" knowledge) and enforce interdicts & negative advice (don't do). I do not believe that the "rational thinking" advocated by Dennett can be enforced in human behavior; I do not believe that it can even be defined explicitly.

Society of Actuaries, Boston, Oct 27, 2009

World Knowledge Forum, Seoul, South Korea, Oct 14, 2009

Asia Society,Honk Kong, Sept 28, 2009

United States Congress, Testimony (Subcommittee), September 10, 2009

Royal Society for the Arts, London, Conversation with David Cameron, August 18, 2009

Aspen Institute, Aspen, July 2-4, 2009

King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden Symposium on Climate Change, Swedish Academy of Science, Vastermorland county (Northern Sweden), June 14-17

Google Zeitgeist, UK, May 17-19 2009,

New Yorker Summit, New York, May 5, 2009 --video on the web.

Dubai, UAE Literary Festival, Feb 27-March 1 2009

World Bank, Feb 24, 2009, Markets and Crises: What Next and How? Washington, DC

Russia Forum, Moscow, Feb 4-5, 2009

Davos, World Economic Forum, January 28-31 2009 - Panels with E.O. Wilson, Sir Martin Rees, Nouriel Roubini, Daniel Kahneman, Niall Ferguson, Robert Engel, Bruce Wassertein, Robert Shiller

DLD Munich -Jan 27 2009 - Kahneman-Taleb: Reflection on a Crisis (Video) moderated by John Brockman

Copenhagen CFA Association,  January 27, 2009 {CANCELLED. Reason: I initially thought they (and other members of the CFA organizations) were just collaborating Bystanders; see My Op-Ed on Bystanders and Charlatans. But it turned out, based on the way they acted, that they are consciously irresponsible }.

Paris, France-Culture & Frédéric Taddei -- Jan 2009

Beirut Virgin Megastore, Jan 5 2008

ZurichMinds, Zurich, Nov 24, 2008

Columbia University, NY, Nov 21, 2008

Abu Dhabi, Nov 15, 2008

Sao Paulo, Brazil, Nov 12, 2008

Only in Brazil

Lisbon, Nov 10, 2008

Barcelona, McKinsey & Co, Oct 22, 2008

London School of Economics, Oct 13, 2008, 7PM, "Decisions, Probability and Beliefs: Beware Mickey Mouse Probability"

 

Cheltenham Literary Festival, Oct 11, 2008

 

Idea Festival,  Sept 25-27, Louisville Kentucky

 

Mantua, Festival letteratura di Mantova Sept 2-7 2008

 

American Political Science Annual Meeting, Boston, August 31,2008

 

American Statistical Association, 2008 Joint Statistical Meetings, August 3-7, 2008

 

Beirut, July 24, (Virgin Megastore)

 

Istanbul, June 12, Pre-Turkish version book launch, Garanti Bankasi

 

Hong Kong, June 3

 

Mumbai, May 28

 

Hay-on-Wye Literary Festival, Wales, May 25, 2008

 

Discovery 08 (science-fest), Toronto  Centres of Excellence, Toronto, May 13, 2008

 

CFA Conference, Vancouver, May 12, 2008

 

University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, ITMAT, April 14-15, 2008

 

Oxford Literary Festival, April 1, 2008

 

London School of Economics, March 6, 2008, Hong Kong Theatre, Clement House (starts at 6:30 PM)

 

Oxford University, James Martin 21st Century School,  March 5, 2008

 

Brussels March 3, 2008

 

TED Conference Feb 27-March 1, 2008

 

Tokyo, Feb 26

 

Warwick Economics Summit –Feb 15-17, 2008. It is not organized by corrupt academic economists. (I have not confirmed)

 

RISK, Feb 12, 2008, NY

 

Long Now Foundation, Seminar about Long Term Thinking. “The Future Has Always Been Crazier than We Thought”, San Francisco – Feb 4, 2008

 

University of Chicago, Stevanovich Center for Financial Mathematics & the International Center for Futures and Derivatives (University of Illinois), Joint Seminar, Jan 11, 2008 –[contact Oleg Bodarenko at UIC for details]. Title: “Preasymptotics, Inverse Problems, and the Real World.”

 

Prague (ESCP Business School of Paris)- December 2-4, 2007

 

Polytechnic University, November 28, 2007

 

European Parliament , November 19, 2007

 

Columbia Business School, November 17 & 27, 2007

 

Athens, Panel, November 8, 2007

 

Dutch Controllers Institute Annual Meeting, Rotterdam, November 7, 2007

 

Harvard University, Kennedy School of Government, November 1-2, 2007

 

San Francisco, October 14, 2007

 

Mexico (with Paul Wilmott), October 5-6, 2007

 

Munich, September 27, 2007

 

Geneva, September 25-26, 2007 –Critique of factor models; data mining in statistics; properties replication.

 

London Business School, September 24, 2007 OPEN TO THE PUBLIC info here

 

Columbia University, Economic action with partial knowledge of the world,  September 7th-8th  , 2007

 

Brazil, August 22-24, 2007, BMF Congresso

 

Edinburgh Literary Festival, August 15-18, 2007

 

Vancouver, July 24, 2007

 

Washington, July 17-18, discussion on Bayesian Inference & Prediction

 

FreedomFest July 5-7 Las Vegas (A libertarian convention). Debate with Charles Murray.

 

Goldman Sachs, July 2, 2007 –Technical lecture on “Why it is not Poisson”.

 

Museum van Loon, Amsterdam, June 28, 2007

 

Lucerne, June 25-26 2007

 

Miller’s Academy, London June 12, 2007

 

RISK’07, Keynote, London, June 12, 2007

 

London Business School, June 11,2007

 

Brazil, May 30-31, 2007

 

University of Texas, May 22, 2007

 

Barnes and Noble lecture New York, May 17, 2007, (5th Avenue at 46th St)

 

Colbert TV Interview –May 8, 2007

 

London, May1, The Black Swan launch

                                                                                                             

Borders Books, NY (57 & Park), April 18, 2007, The Black Swan launch

 

London April 12-13, Wilmott

 

Zurich ETH March 31- Talk on Security and Terrorism Issues

 

Bowdoin College, March 26 – On the Impact of the Highly Improbable

 

New York, March 6, Morgan Stanley Quant Lecture Life is at best preasymptotics, at the worst an inverse problem.

 

Dubai March 2007 -CANCELLED

 

American Association for the Advancement of Science Annual Meeting, San Francisco, Feb 16, 2006 –Symposia: Life Science for Sustaining Health. Obsersational versus Randomized Trials. Discussion of data mining in epidemiology as an application of the narrative fallacy.

 

Columbia University, Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research,  Discussions with students of my A Priori Problem of Small Probabilities, Feb 5, 2006

 

South Africa, January 21-30, 2006

 

Birbeck College, London, January 19, 2007

 

Bank of England, Market Stability, January 19, 2006

 

Washington CFA Association, January 10, 2006

 

American University in Beirut, Center for Applied Mathematical Sciences, Beirut, Lebanon, December 11, 2006 [Postponed]

 

Columbia University, December 8, 2006

Yale University, Martin Shubik’s Seminar, December 6, 2006

 

Warsaw, Poland, December 4, 2006

 

Brighton, England, November 29, 2006

 

Johns Hopkins University, November 7 (or 8), 2006 [tentative]

 

New York University, Economics Department, Colloquium on Market Institutions (“Austrian Economics”), November 6, 2006

 

Columbia University, October 26, 2006

 

Jim Lehrer Newshour, October 23, 2006

 

Sloan Foundation October 23, 2006

 

London Risk and Insurance Lecture, October 18, 2006

 

Moscow, Russia,  Lecture on Tail Events, September 13, 2006

­

Ecole Polytechnique, Les Scalantes et les phénomenes sociaux, Lecture in Honor of Benoit Mandelbrot, Paris, September 11,2006

 

GAIM 2006, Plenary, Cannes, July 10-13 2006

 

8th Wilmott-Taleb Workshop July 6-7 2006

 

Rome Summer School on Risk Management, June 20-28, 2006

 

Quant Congress, Plenary Lecture, Monte Carlo, June 6-8, 2006 [I CANCELLED]

 

Amsterdam Talk, May 31, 2006

 

Stockholm Stock Exchange, Stockholm, May 30, 2006

 

ICBI Derivatives, 2006, Paris, May 9 2006

 

Grant’s Conference, New York, March 29, 2006

 

PRMIA, former Global Association of Risk Professionals, Who Cares About Infinite Variance? Cass Business School, London, March 23 2006 [POSTPONED]

 

Frankfurt (Germany) Talk, March 20,2006

 

University of Massachusetts at Amherst, 2005-2006. I taught the class Randomness, Decisions and Human Nature .

 

Dubai Talk, March 6-8, 2006

 

Columbia University Sociology Seminar, On the Difference between Mild and Wild Randomness and the Consequences, Feb 17, 2006

 

Literary reading in NYC on Feb 28 --open to the public. Please send an email to confirm to info-at-theblackswan.org

 

U Mass Amherst Seminar, Feb 10, 2006

 

Louisiana State University, January 27, 2006

 

Columbia University, Monday, Jan 23, 2006, Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research, Location: Davis Auditorium, 412 Shapiro CEPSR, 6:00-7:30pm. Topic: Who Cares About Infinite Variance? My work on the consequences of scalability.

 

Larchmont Talk, January 19, 2006

 

Le Hasard Sauvage Emission Litteraire, Canal +, Paris January 13, 2006 [POSTPONED]

 

Wharton School Panel Discussion The Known, the Unknown and the Unknowable, Boston.  Funded by the Sloan foundation, January 6 2006

 

RISK “Grand Debate”– Geneva- December 7, 2005, Discussion & debate with Emanuel Derman, Robert Merton, Ed Altman, and Myron Scholes. Organized by ICBI. Last year’s discussion with Robert Merton was a hit –although we “violently agreed”.

 

 

London Junto Meeting Guest Lecture, The Scandal of Prediction: Hayekian Perspectives, Non-Explicit Knowledge, and Cures ,TBA, December 2005. The account is at http://cicerossongs.blogspot.com/2005/12/limits-to-knowledge.html

 

 

Society of Judgment and Decision Making, Annual Meeting, Guest Address “Fat Tony, the Nerd, and the Black Swan”, Toronto, November 12-14, 2005.

 

Quant Congress- “Who Is Afraid of Infinite Variance?”, New York, November 9, 2005

 

Columbia University – November 4, 2005, My 2nd EMBA Address

 

Columbia University – November 3rd , My 3rd Annual Talk in Prof. Gur Huberman’s Class

 

Pop Tech Annual Conference-Camden, Maine, October 20-23. The Scandal of Prediction –with Robert Trivers.

 

RISK Talk, Bucharest, Romania, October 13-15, 2005.

 

AIMA South Africa – Pseudo-alpha, October 6, 2005 (by videoconference –alas it is too hard to get there while teaching in Amherst).

 

(I am taking the bulk of the summer off from all activities to just read classics & to enjoy texts outside cognitive science as they are getting too repetitive).

(In a suit and tie—not very characteristic)

 

 

7th London Derivatives Lectures, 20-21 July, 2005. Co-taught with Paul Wilmott. www.wilmott.com

 

Columbia University, Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research,_ Discussion on Non-Gaussian Cumulants, New York, June 27, 2005

 

GAIM 2005, Keynote Speaker, Lausanne, June 6-8, 2005. My talk will be followed by a rebuttal by MIT’s Steve Ross. Last year they had 1500 participants.

 

ICBI Derivatives 2005, Paris, May 23-27, 2005. “Fat Tails & Silent Evidence”.

 

Enterprise Risk Management Symposium (jointly by the Society of Actuaries, the Casualty Actuarial Society, the Professional Risk Managers International Association, and Georgia State University), Chicago, May 2, 2005.

 

Amsterdam Talk on Derivatives Problems, a New Risk Paradigm, & Econophysics, April 7-8, 2005.

 

Universite Paris-Dauphine, DESS 203 Student Mini-Course Le risque, la connaissance, et le comportement, Paris, March 23, 24, & 25. Une présentation et synthese d’ épistemologie des processus stochastiques, de mathématiques des probabilités dans un univers non normal, et de sciences cognitives, particuli_rement en ce qui concerne la perception des déviations et la neurobiologie de la mémoire des causes et effets.

 

Larchmont Public Library, (Larchmont, New York), March 20th.

 

HF Conference, Keynote Speaker, Sydney, Australia, March 15-16, 2005. (very far but I will stop in New Zealand to watch black swans).

 

6th London Derivatives Class (with Paul Wilmott), London, Feb28-March1, 2004.

 

Universita di Torino, Cigno Nero, Turin, Feb 25, 2005. (I did a pilgrimage at the spot where Nietzsche ended his career).

 

Milan Talk on Risk and Uncertainty, Italian Institute of Risk Studies, Milan, Feb 24, 2005.

 

European Patent’s Office, Munich, Feb 22-23, 2005.

 

Woodrow Wilson Center, Washington DC, Feb 9, 2005, organized by the RAND Corporation.

                                                                                                                                                                                                         

 

“Vienna Roundtable”, the OKB Economics Forecasting Thinktank, Vienna, December 16-17, 2004.

_

Risk Management Summit, Geneva, December 8, 2004. Panel with Emanuel Derman, Robert C. Merton, etc.

 

London Derivatives Class (with Paul Wilmott), November 22-23,2004.

 

Columbia University, November 16, Annual talk in Gur Huberman’s Behavioral Finance class._

__

Fort Lauderdale Film Festival, Scholar’s Workshop, November 6, 2004. Discussion on actor’s payoff and utility in a kurtosis framework, a paper with Art De Vany & Mark Spitznagel (a more technical version of Chapter 10 of the 2nd ed. of Fooled by Randomness). The paper might be represented by Art De Vany because of time conflict.

 

Columbia Business School_ November 6, 2004, Address to the EMBA Class.

 

University of Massachusetts at Amherst, November 5 , 2004. Presentation of the general problems in the measurement of uncertainty.

 

Quant Congress, New York City, November 2, 2004, Plenary Speech and Panelist.

 

University of Western Ontario, Keynote Speech, “Gambling With the Wrong Dice”, Centre for the Study of Theory and Criticism, October 13-17, 2004 (a postmodernist conference on gambling and speculation)

 

Institute of Psychology and Markets Symposium, New Directions in Behavioral Finance, Oct 9, New Orleans. Panel discussion with _Paul Slovic, Werner DeBondt ...

 

Arts & Sciences Colloquium, Rome, September 24, 2004. “Il Cigno Nero”. Table ronde with philosophers Mariagiovanna Muso,_ Edgar Morin, etc.

 

Lugano University, Gamma BSI Foundation, September 16, 2004, Lugano, Switzerland. Presentation and panel discussion with Tanya Beder, Ren_ Stutz & Myron Scholes.

 

Gift I got in Milan:

Milan Talk, “On Skewness and Asymmetry”, September 15, 2004_

 

“100 Women in Hedge Funds” Association (Actually they are now 1800), September 9, 2004,New York City

_

(No Scheduled Talks During the Summer...almost)

 

Talk at the FW Bookstore, London, 6:30 PM, Monday June 28th ,2004

 

GAIM Conference, Keynote Talk, June 8-11 2004, Lausanne, Switzerland

 

10th Annual Global Derivatives Forum_ 2004, May 25-27, 2004, Madrid, Spain (my 4th). Panel with Bob Shiller, Rob Engle, Ricardo Rebonato, John Hull, Steve Ross.

 

Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Department of Applied Mathematics and Statistics, Talk on the 2nd Ed. of Fooled by Randomness, April 20, 4 PM, photo by Marybeth Camerer, another photo after the talk

 

University Paris-Dauphine, DESS 203, April 1st , 2004, Paris (almost the best time of the year!)

5:30 Amphitheatre Raymond Aron de l'Universite Paris Dauphine. Listen Here

 

Burda Media Sponsored Uncertainty & Chance Discussion, Munich, Germany, March 29, 2004, with Gerd Gigerenzer._

This came after a “Randomness Weekend”_ organized by the immensely insightful and perfect nice-guy Jochen Wegner in the Bavarian mountains with philosophers, novelists & writers from Germany & Switzerland.

See photos & account by the novelist/(former) philosopher/blogger Peter Praschl .

See account (along with other matters related to fate) on Jochen Wegner’s_ www.warumimmerich.com

 

Warsaw University, “Czarne Labadz”, March 16, 2004, Warsaw, Poland

 

Kozminski Academy, Department of Social Sciences, March 13, 2004, Warsaw, Poland

 

Massachusetts Institute of Technology_ (Sloan School), February 26, Boston

 

Volatility & Derivatives Workshop_ February 19-20, 2004, London.

 

GFA Roundtable, January 29, 2004,London

 

D.B. Equity Derivatives Panel, January 23, 2004, New York

 

OKB 13th Rountable Conference, December 11-12, 2003,Vienna.

 

Volatility & Derivatives Workshop_ December 8-9, 2003, London. Organized by Wilmott.com. With the colorful Paul Wilmott. Program.

 

ICBI Risk Management (roundtable with Robert Merton, Myron Scholes, John Hull, Emanuel Derman, Robert Shiller), December 3rd, 2003, Geneva. [I withdrew]

 

United States Defense Secretary Highland Panel on Risk– November 18-19, 2003, Las Vegas.

 

Columbia University Business School, Discussion on small probabilities and behavioral finance, Gur Huberman’s Class, November 1,1 2003, 11:45-1:15.

 

NYU Economics Honors Society – November 3 2003, 5:30 P.M., New York._ Tisch Hall: 40 West Fourth Street, New York, NY 210012. Room: UC-63 (please send me a note with your name and affiliation). Notice that students were asked to NOT wear suits.

 

Drobny Global Conference –October 3 2003, Barcelona

 

Volatility & Derivatives Workshop_ September 25-25 2003, London. Organized by Wilmott.com.

 

ACI World Congress –(Association Cambiste Internationale) September 12 2003, Beirut, Lebanon

 

Columbia University, Department of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research,_ New York, September 8, 2003, 5:30-7 P.M.

 

 

[No public talks during the summer]

 

London Business School, June 10, 2003, On the Psychology of Skewness (by teleconference).

 

Stanford University (Mathematics Department), May 31 2003.

 

Global Derivatives Forum , Barcelona, May 20-23, 2003.

 

Greenwich Roundtable, Behavioral Finance Discussion, May 15, 2003 (with Yale’s Robert Shiller).

 

Larchmont Public Library, Sunday April 27 2003, 4 PM.

 

Italian Institute for Insurance Studies, Risk Seminar, Rome, April 10-11 2003. Panel with Daniel Kahneman on “Why people take risks”.

 

American Association for Artificial Intelligence Symposium on Chance Discovery: The Discovery and Management of Chance Events, Guest Lecture and Panel Discussion, Cape Cod, Massachusetts,_ November 15-17, 2002.

 

Canal 5, Bibliotheca, Interview with Robert Scully (in French, 25 minutes), November 4, 2002.

Universit_ Paris-Dauphine, Black-Scholes (in French), Paris, Oct 29, 2002.

Grant Conference, The Central Problem of Risk Bearing, New York, Oct 24, 2002.

Columbia Business School (Alumni Association), The Stock Market, Opiate of the Middle Class. New York, Sept 24, 2002.

Bloomberg Radio, New York, _August 27 2002, One hour discussion with June Grasso and Charlie Pellett. Open to Callers. -CANCELLED

National Public Radio- Washington, July 26 2002, One Hour With Kojo Nnamdi [ Listen Here]. My train was delayed so part of my interview was on a cell phone from a taxicab (additional excitement: the driver got lost).

Northwestern University, Evanston, AIMR Seminar, July 24, 2002. (I was replaced by the risk expert Kent Osband).

RISK 2002 Congress, Boston, June 12, 2002, Keynote speech (plenary): "The Central Problem of Risk Management".

Annual Global Derivatives Forum , Barcelona, May 14, 2002, Plenary speech.

Risk Management Conference, February 2, 2002, Renaissance Resort, St. Petersburg, Florida.

Stern School of Business, New York University, Feb 1 2002, Derivatives Research Project (by invitation only).

Derivatech Discussion, Jan 29 2002, Cornell Club, New York City. Topic related to the flaws in the risk management of complex derivatives and highly mathematized packages.

Bloomberg Panel, Jan 23, 2002, Bloomberg Conference Center, New York City. Followed by an interview on Bloomberg TV on Jan 25. 1000 people in attendance. Recordings are available for both on the Bloomberg terminals

Financial Mathematics and Energy Risk, Oslo, Dec 12, 2001, Keynote Speech. Topic: "Risks of Non-fungible Derivatives with Applications to Energy Products: an Applied Approach"

Swiss Re Risk Retreat, Dec 11, 2001, R_schlikon, Switzerland

Conversations with Harold Hudson Channer, New York City, Channel 34/107, 59 min. Topic: Randomness and (mostly) entropy.

Cambridge Union Debate, Cambridge Union Chamber, Cambridge, UK, October 30, 2001. Topic: "This house believes that most city hotshots are lucky fools".