Michael Lewis on Niederhoffer
Nassim Taleb
A blatant disregard for the bottom line.
Michael Lewis' review of Victor Niederhoffer "Education of a Speculator"
is an example of bad review journalism. Lewis, at his best, acted as a
gossip columnist discussing matters way over his head. Lewis has proven,
in "Liars' Poker", his lack of interest of financial markets: His mind
naively focuses on the squalor of human motives and what sensational
could be brought out of it. He reminds me of Anthony Trolloppe's
mother's discussion of her trip to America which makes far reaching
judgments based on the American gentry's superficial domestic manners.
Listening to Lewis discuss financial matters is exactly like using
People's Magazine as a sociological document.
The review resembles a gossip book called "Intellectuals" by one Paul
Johnson (a once-successful pseudo-scholar). It states that Bertrand
Russell's fame and role in society was undeserved on grounds that
Russell had (among other things) bad breath and a promiscuous lifestyle.
Clearly, Johnson did not know of axiomatic set theory and could not
value the invaluable contributions brought by Russell to modern
mathematics and analytical philosophy. The fact that we have the axiom
of choice was not a matter to mean anything to a journalistic
low-thinker. Likewise, the fact that Niederhoffer, an outstanding (and
exuberant) scientific trader, blurted out what was on his mind meant
nothing to Lewis. It happens, however, to mean a lot to other people:
those who are interested in markets and need to understand the
philosophy and methodology of traders. Or the general public interested
in hearing what a trader honestly has to say.
This gossip-journalism approach brings to mind a French saying: "No
great mind is an intellectual giant to his chambermaid". Lewis engages
in low-level sophistry: wondering why, if Niederhoffer were a
contrarian, he should act as a contrarian and avoid making money.
In addition, Lewis is bitter about something: Is he jealous of
Niederhoffer's success ? I am myself in the process of writing a book
on financial markets and my experience as a scientific trader obsessed
with the meaning of randomness. I expect that Michael Lewis will focus
on some of the insignificant aspects of my book (like perhaps my
Levantine birth) and completely miss the point.
Nassim Taleb
Taleb Research Inc.
E-mail: Nta...@ix.netcom.com
Web: http://pw1.netcom.com/~ntaleb/index.html
William Yeh
Where can I read Lewis review?
Nassim Taleb <Nta...@ix.netcom.com> wrote in article
<3333E9...@ix.netcom.com>...
> A blatant disregard for the bottom line.
> Michael Lewis' review of Victor Niederhoffer "Education of a Speculator"
> is an example of bad review journalism. Lewis, at his best, acted as a
Vivek Rao
William Yeh wrote:
>
> Where can I read Lewis review?
>
In the Sunday New York Times Book Review section, according to
Nassim Taleb at
http://pw1.netcom.com/~ntaleb/test2.html . The date was not
specified.
Jason Pociask
William Yeh wrote:
>
> Where can I read Lewis review?
>
I thought he was talking about the piece in the back half of
Barrons a couple weeks back, but I didn't notice it was written
by M.L. "Liar's Poker" was just about the funniest book I ever
read...but I could believe that Lewis didn't really appreciate
VN's work, since he is basically a Liberal Arts guy who got lucky
and landed a job at Solly back during the rush to expand sales
staffs prior to the '87 crash. Maybe quant stuff is a little
beyond his ken.