#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! Sponsors: Momentous high-quality supplements: https://livemomentous.com/tim (code TIM for 20% off) Eight Sleep’s Pod 4 Ultra sleeping solution for dynamic cooling and heating: https://eightsleep.com/tim (save $350 on the Pod 4 Ultra) LMNT electrolyte supplement: https://drinklmnt.com/Tim (free LMNT sample pack with any drink mix purchase) 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 exodu