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.”
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.
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.
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.
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