ENGLISH

The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms

By Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Book information

Publisher
Random House
Year
2010
ISBN
1400069971, 9781400069972, 9780679643685
LCC
PN6271 .T35 2011
Open Library ID
OL24494996M
Language
english
Format
EPUB
Filesize
2 MB (1782920 bytes)
Pages
128\0
Time added
2011-06-04 13:46:07

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.

Similar books