You may be right, but it does play into accepting some of Taleb's arguments when one lacks his intellectual caliber. I certainly feel that "intellectual honesty" plays a little bit into how harmoniously a great thinker "sells" his or her frameworks. This is one reason why I hardly question the good-will behind a reasoning Chomsky or Pinker or Dawkins, or any other great thinker who consistently shows a more reflexive humanity. Tabeb may be a genius, but his a-holeness indeed makes it hard for me to comprehend him better. Admittedly, the same was probably said of Newton and many others :-(
It's a good reason to not assume that it's worth reading. I personally gave up following him on twitter because he's such a dick. I personally do find this line of argument compelling though
It’s a good reason to not spend time examining his points, given that time is scarce. That’s not a formal argument that his claims are incorrect, obviously, but it’s a valid reason to not spend my time on him.
