Editing Tightrope walking (section)

==Metaphorical use==
The word ''funambulism'', the phrase ''walking a tightrope'', and associated variants also occur in metaphorical contexts not referring to any actual acrobatic acts. For instance, politicians are said to "walk a tightrope" when trying to balance two opposing views with little room for compromise. The idea can also appear in satirical or acidic contexts. [[Nicholas Taleb]] uses the concept in his book ''[[The Black Swan (2007 book)|The Black Swan]]'': "You get respect for doing funambulism or spectator sports [...]."<ref>
{{cite book
 |last1                = Taleb
 |first1               = Nassim Nicholas
 |author-link1         = Nassim Nicholas Taleb
 |date                 = 11 May 2010
 |chapter              = Postscript Essay: On robustness and fragility, deeper philosophical and empirical reflections
 |title                = The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=GSBcQVd3MqYC
 |edition              = 2
 |publication-place    = New York
 |publisher            = Random House Publishing Group
 |page                 = 368
 |isbn                 = 9780679604181
 |access-date          = 21 July 2024
 |quote                = Science [...] has never liked negative results. The reward system is not set up for it. You get respect for doing funambulism or spectator sports - following the right steps to become 'the Einstein of Economics' or 'the next Darwin' rather than give society something real by debunking myths or by cataloguing where our knowledge stops.
}} 
</ref>
Taleb is criticising scientists who prefer [[popularism]]{{cn|date=July 2024}} to vigorous research and those who walk a fixed and narrow path rather than explore a large field of empirical study.