The Bed Of Procrustes

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

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With characteristic panache and brio, Taleb uses aphorisms to condense his rambunctious ideas and style. This is the perfect reference for anyone searching for the right questions to ask.

A condensed guide to life, Nassim Nicholas Taleb's The Bed of Procrustes is an invaluable collection of aphorisms to help you navigate the modern world.Second edition, revised and expandedWhy are we so often unwilling to accept that life is unpredictable? In this brilliant book Nassim Nicholas Taleb distils his idiosyncratic wisdom to demolish our illusions, contrasting the classical values of courage, elegance and erudition against modern philistinism and phoniness. Only by accepting what we don't know, he shows, can we see the world as it really is.

Published: 1 December 2016
ISBN: 9780141985022
Imprint: Penguin Press
Format: Paperback
Pages: 128
RRP: $26.00

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Humour

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About the author

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Nassim Nicholas Taleb has devoted his life to immersing himself in problems of luck, uncertainty, probability and knowledge. Part literary essayist, part empiricist, part no-nonsense mathematical trader, he is currently Dean's Professor in the Science of Uncertainty at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. His last book, the bestseller Fooled by Randomness, has been published in eighteen languages and was selected by Fortune magazine as one of "The Smartest Books of All Time". Taleb lives mostly in New York.

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Praise for The Bed Of Procrustes

A teasing, thought-provoking book . . . its title is taken from the Greek myth in which Procrustes fitted his guests to a bed - cutting to size those too tall and stretching those too short. Taleb's crystalline nuggets of thought stand alone like esoteric poems
Financial Times

Happily provocative . . . blistering . . . his observations concern superiority, wealth, suckerdom, academia, modernity, technology and the all-purpose, ignorant "they" . . . very quotable
The New York Times

A master philosopher
The Times

The aphorism is Taleb to a tee. It showcases his wit and learning, and provides ways to fillet his enemies . . . Like Twain and Wilde before him, Taleb eats paradoxes for breakfast
Independent on Sunday