The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms (Incerto)
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Book Info
Author
Taleb, Nassim Nicholas
Word Count
28,000 words
based on page count
Pages
112 pages
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Edition Publisher
Random House
Edition Publish Date
2010-11-30
Identifiers
ISBN-10: 1400069971
ISBN-13: 9781400069972
Description
By the author of the modern classic The Black Swan, this collection of aphorisms and meditations expresses his major ideas in ways you least expect.
The Bed of Procrustes takes its title from Greek mythology: the story of a man who made his visitors fit his bed to perfection by either stretching them or cutting their limbs. It represents Taleb’s view of modern civilization’s hubristic side effects—modifying humans to satisfy technology, blaming reality for not fitting economic models, inventing diseases to sell drugs, defining intelligence as what can be tested in a classroom, and convincing people that employment is not slavery.
Playful and irreverent, these aphorisms will surprise you by exposing self-delusions you have been living with but never recognized.
With a rare combination of pointed wit and potent wisdom, Taleb plows through human illusions, contrasting the classical values of courage, elegance, and erudition against the modern diseases of nerdiness, philistinism, and phoniness.
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