The cure for intellectualism

Nassim Taleb says that the benefit of a new technology is usually in eradicating the bad effects of an old technology. To take one example, portable education - videos, podcasts, kindle - frees us from long hours on the chair on which we were placed by the invention of the PC. This can be neatly encapsulated by the emergence of the 21st century "tablet," reminiscent of the stone slabs on which humans first learned to write.

Intellectual ideas should be submitted to this test. Use the intellect mostly to refute harmful formulations in their own language. Do not fall for the falsehood that you are…