Feuding duo Elon Musk and Nassim Nicholas Taleb both met PM Modi. What Taleb tweeted later

PM Modi with Nassim Nicholas Taleb (L) and Elon Musk (R)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi met several notable personalities in New York City on Tuesday evening – including Tesla CEO Elon Musk and author Nassim Nicholas Taleb, who have locked horns on various issues in the past. The feuding duo met the Indian prime minister within minutes of each other, prompting a cryptic tweet from Taleb.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb, mathematical statistician and bestselling author of ‘The Black Swan’, shared a video of his meeting with PM Modi on Twitter and wrote: “Elon Musk, while attacking me on Twitter, was next but I did not run into him.”

Elon Musk, while attacking me on Twitter, was next but I did not run into him. https://t.co/E5G1MpeStz

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb (@nntaleb) June 20, 2023

During their meeting, PM Modi and Taleb discussed India’s response to Covid, which the author praised as commendable. Taleb later tweeted that successful interventions, which helped control the virus and avert catastrophes, might look excessive in hindsight.

Interestingly, the pandemic is one issue where Taleb and Musk have not seen eye-to-eye in the past. In March 2020, Elon Musk had tweeted “The coronavirus panic is dumb.”

Nassim Nicholas Taleb had a sharp rejoinder – “Saying the coronavirus panic is dumb is dumb,” he tweeted in response. Musk apparently blocked him on Twitter after that.

Saying the coronavirus panic is dumb is dumb.#PrecautionaryPrinciple#WittgensteinsRulerhttps://t.co/AS5UzFBs03 — Nassim Nicholas Taleb (@nntaleb) March 7, 2020

More recently, in April 2022, Taleb had hit out at Musk for blocking him on Twitter “just before Covid hit the fan.” He criticised Musk for interfering with the flow of information, and going so far as to buying an entire social media company to do so.

From suckers who firmly believe @ElonMusk is a defender of the flow of information, he has blocked me for this in March 2020, just before Covid hit the fan.

I have nothing agst blocking or restricting accounts; but I am not buying Twitter to facilitate the flow of information. https://t.co/1cyhojh6nr — Nassim Nicholas Taleb (@nntaleb) April 25, 2022

Prime Minister Narendra Modi held meetings with several eminent personalities on Tuesday evening – including Musk, Taleb, astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson and investor Ray Dalio. He will now fly to Washington DC from New York City to meet US President Joe Biden.