“The problem with complex systems is that we often only understand them retrospectively”
— Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Simplified Meaning:
When dealing with complicated systems or situations, we often don't fully grasp how they work until we look back on them. Imagine you're baking a cake for the first time without fully understanding the recipe. You might make mistakes along the way because you don't know how each step impacts the final result. Only after you finish and taste the cake do you understand what went wrong and why. Similarly, in history, people didn't fully recognize the causes of major events like the financial crisis of 2008 until it was over and experts analyzed what had happened. This idea suggests that we can learn a lot by reviewing and analyzing our past actions and decisions. By doing this, we can understand the complexities and avoid making the same mistakes in the future.
