The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms

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More About This Book

Overview

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.

Editorial Reviews

Janet Maslin
…happily provocative…Mr. Taleb is so calculatedly abrasive in this smart, attention-getting little book that he achieves his main objective. "A good maxim," he writes, "allows you to have the last word without even starting a conversation."
—The New York Times

Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9781400069972
  • Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
  • Publication date: 11/30/2010
  • Pages: 128
  • Sales rank: 264,171
  • Product dimensions: 8.46 (w) x 11.90 (h) x 0.66 (d)

Meet the Author

Nassim Nicholas Taleb spends most of his time as a flâneur, meditating in cafés across the planet. A former trader, he is currently Distinguished Professor of Risk Engineering at New York University. He is the author of Fooled by Randomness and The Black Swan, which has spent more than a year on the New York Times bestseller list and has become an intellectual, social, and cultural touchstone.

Read an Excerpt

Counter Narratives The best revenge on a liar is to convince him that you believe what he said. - When we want to do something while unconsciously certain to fail, we seek advice so we can blame someone else for the failure. - It is harder to say no when you really mean it than when you don’t. Never say no twice if you mean it. - Your reputation is harmed the most by what you say to defend it. - The only objective definition of aging is when a person starts to talk about aging. - They will envy you for your success, for your wealth, for your intelligence, for your looks, for your status—but rarely for your wisdom. - Most of what they call humility is successfully disguised arrogance.

If you want people to read a book, tell them it is overrated. - You never win an argument until they attack your person. - Nothing is more permanent than “temporary” arrangements, deficits, truces, and relationships; and nothing is more temporary than “permanent” ones. - The most painful moments are not those we spend with uninteresting people; rather, they are those spent with uninteresting people trying hard to be interesting. - Hatred is love with a typo somewhere in the computer code, correctable but very hard to find. I wonder whether a bitter enemy would be jealous if he discovered that I hated someone else. - The characteristic feature of the loser is to bemoan, in general terms, mankind’s flaws, biases, contradictions, and irrationality—without exploiting them for fun and profit. - The test of whether you really liked a book is if you reread it (and how many times); the test of whether you really liked someone’s company is if you are ready to meet him again and again—the rest is spin, or that variety of sentiment now called self-esteem. - We ask “why is he rich (or poor)?” not “why isn’t he richer (or poorer)?” “why is the crisis so deep?” not “why isn’t it deeper?” Hatred is much harder to fake than love. You hear of fake love; never of fake hate. - The opposite of manliness isn’t cowardice; it’s technology. - Usually, what we call a “good listener” is someone with skillfully polished indifference. - It is the appearance of inconsistency, and not its absence, that makes people attractive. - You remember emails you sent that were not answered better than emails that you did not answer. People reserve standard compliments for those who do not threaten their pride; the others they often praise by calling “arrogant.” - Since Cato the Elder, a certain type of maturity has shown up when one starts blaming the new generation for “shallowness” and praising the previous one for its “values.” - It is as difficult to avoid bugging others with advice on how to exercise and other health matters as it is to stick to an exercise schedule. - By praising someone for his lack of defects you are also implying his lack of virtues. - When she shouts that what you did was unforgivable, she has already started to forgive you. Being unimaginative is only a problem when you are easily bored. - We call narcissistic those individuals who behave as if they were the central residents of the world; those who do exactly the same in a set of two we call lovers or, better, “blessed by love.” -

Customer Reviews

Average Rating 3.5
( 16 )

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Sort by: Showing all of 17 Customer Reviews

  • Posted March 7, 2011

    more from this reviewer

    "If you want people to read a book, tell them it is overrated."

    I see a few earlier reviewers have already tried to publicize Taleb this way.

    As may be... Taleb is working in the tradition of La Rochefoucauld, Martial, Leonidas, and the notebooks of Geoffrey Madan. He originally ran many of these epigrams on Twitter, and I think the epigram is probably the best use of Twitter. (Taleb's since retreated to the walled garden of Facebook, but he's like that.)

    Is the book therefore short? Yes. But it packs a fairly powerful punch to anyone willing to listen. Are these observations one could find sifting through other literature? Perhaps, but it would take a *lot* of sifting, and Taleb is justifiably proud of his time in his library. Why should one spurn a witness telling us these thoughts are still relevant today, and willing to share the fruits of his reading?

    "I wonder whether a bitter enemy would be jealous if he discovered that I hated someone else."

    "Usually, what we call a 'good listener' is someone with skillfully polished indifference."

    Newton spoke of his shiny pebbles and pretty shells. Taleb's pebbles have been through his rock tumbler for some time, and are all the more smooth for it.

    2 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted December 6, 2010

    Eh...

    It was okay. Had I realized what I was getting I would not have spent $10. I would still have probably purchased it for $2 though. Not exactly what I expected.

    1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Posted October 27, 2011

    Many thoughts -- each is a pearl -- not a light read.

    Nassim Taleb takes extremely brave move to write the book in a format of aphorisms. Some of them I did not understand no matter how much I tried, some of them I love, and some of them I had to think for hours before I got them.

    It is not a book I can grab and read in a couple of hours; it takes weeks and months. But many aphorisms I remembered forever.

    You have to be in a mood for the book; if you are the book is great.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Posted March 30, 2011

    satiated

    When an aphorist frontally demeans the reader he steps onto disintegrating ground. A Heisenberg-like event.

    0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

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  • Posted January 15, 2011

    For one of the great "thinkers of our time" it was pretty mundane

    Nothing new. Just a bunch of thoughts and personal opinions jumbled into subsections and marketed as something insightful. If the book hadn't been given to me, I would have been upset to pay this much for something that took me less than 30 minutes to read. If you're a technophobe, independently wealthy, or maybe a little bit slothful and in need of some good quotes - you may enjoy it more. The author's other books are much better, but even then, I wouldn't assign "great thinker" to this man. Nothing you can't get from basic Psychology books, Eastern Philosophy, and Sociology. So many quotes degrading people that work a 9-5. I'm glad the author can be so smug while he hocks crap on unsuspecting buyers.

    0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

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  • Anonymous

    Posted December 11, 2010

    Worth reading...

    The Bed of Procrustes is a book of aphorisms. I don't agree with them all, that's because I'm a different person, but most all of them give me material to ponder. I am enjoying reading the book. I have receommended it to friends. The title is what caught my attention, initially. The myth of Procrustes is one of my favorites. Makes a lot of sense to me that institutions are Procrustes' bed.

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    Posted June 4, 2011

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