#759: Nassim Nicholas Taleb and Todd McFarlane

This episode is a two-for-one, and that’s because the podcast recently hit its 10-year anniversary and passed one billion downloads. To celebrate, I’ve curated some of the best of the best—some of my favorites—from 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 — 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 — 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:

[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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