#759: Nassim Nicholas Taleb and Todd McFarlane

Published: July 31, 2024, 1:14 p.m.

This episode is a two-for-one, and that\u2019s because the podcast recently hit its 10-year anniversary and passed one billion downloads. To celebrate, I\u2019ve curated some of the best of the best\u2014some of my favorites\u2014from more than 700 episodes over the last decade. I could not be more excited.

The episode features segments from episode #691 "Nassim Nicholas Taleb & Scott Patterson \u2014 How Traders Make Billions in The New Age of Crisis, Defending Against Silent Risks, Personal Independence, Skepticism Where It (Really) Counts, The Bishop and The Economist, and Much More" and #639 "Todd McFarlane, Legendary Comic Book Artist \u2014 How to Make Iconic Art, Reinvent Spider-Man, Live Life on Your Own Terms, and Meet Every Deadline."

Please enjoy!

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Timestamps:

[00:00] Start

[04:51] Notes about this supercombo format.

[05:54] Enter Nassim Nicholas Taleb and Scott Patterson.

[06:32] The joy of writing a preemptive resignation letter.

[07:13] Developing resilience against criticism.

[10:04] Nassim: contrarian, or simply independent?

[12:27] Jiving with skeptical turkeys.

[17:21] Persisting through the polycrisis.

[19:18] Introducing the precautionary principle.

[21:37] Nassim's preferred legacy.

[23:50] Precautionary principle 101.

[25:14] Fat tails, thin tails, the COVID vaccine, and GMOs.

[32:51] Enter Todd McFarlane.

[33:21] Baseball.

[38:46] Rejection letters.

[42:38] Compelling storytelling and meeting deadlines.

[45:46] Deadlines pre-Internet vs. deadlines today.

[48:36] How industry status quo led to the founding of Image Comic Books.

[1:00:30] The Comics Code and the last straw.

[1:06:52] The Marvel Dream Team exodus.

[1:25:13] How is Todd's camel bladder a competitive advantage?

[1:31:02] Career bouncing and double-shifting as a penciler and inker.

[1:49:08] The happy accident of Venom.

[1:55:46] De-Rockwelling the company icon and inventing "spaghetti webbing."

[2:03:31] Bucking the status quo to become the status quo.

[2:07:13] Parting thoughts and a promise for round two.

*

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