From Nassim Taleb’s web notebook:
I was going to have dinner with Seth Roberts in San Francisco. So, out of curiosity, I tried his diet [ clipping my nose and consuming two large tablespoons of flaxseed oil ] . . . When someone who observed me with a noseclip asked: “what are you doing?” , I gave my answer “trying to be healthier.” It elicited a smile: “Why don’t you dance outside on one leg for ten minutes? That too may work very well.”
Strange strange coincidence.
Just given the sheer weirdness of your theories, I’ve repeatedly thought that you’re actually doing large-scale research on the placebo effect, and that we’re all going to end up as examples in a paper or book down the road.
But the flaxseed oil did have a positive effect on my sleep — very vivid dreams. Any weight loss has been minimal, but I did think that I have been less hungry, so I’ll keep it up for another couple weeks and see if there is an effect.
“The sheer weirdness of your theories.” Yeah, I find them weird too. Not the flaxseed oil, which many others before me have praised. (Although the idea that an everyday foodstuff could substantially improve brain performance is weird.) But the standing, the faces, the sugar water, the oil, the nose-clipping, the anti-breakfast — those are weird. I’m not sure what to make of it.