Book Review – The Bed of Procrustes
Image: The Bed of Procrustes by Len Lantz (CC BY-NC-ND)
Synopsis: Len's Star Rating: 8 out of 10. A collection of pearls of wisdom and philosophical musings by Dr. Nassim Taleb.
BY LEN LANTZ, MD / 7.20.2022; No. 90
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Star Rating – 8 out of 10
Rating guide: 1 = horrible, 5 = average and 10 = wow
Author
Nassim Nicholas Taleb
About the author
Nassim Taleb, PhD, is a mathematical statistician, former options trader and risk analyst, and author of several influential books on the effects of randomness, probability, and uncertainty in financial markets and life in general.
General description
The Bed of Procrustes is a book that reads like a collection of quotes, however, all the sayings are by Nassim Taleb. In the Postface, Dr. Taleb writes, “The general theme of my work is the limitations of human knowledge, and the charming and less charming errors and biases when working with matters that lie outside our field of observation, the unobserved and the unobservables – the unknown; what lies on the other side of the veil of opacity.” The author regards aphorisms as a form of poetry and states, “Aphorisms require us to change our reading habits and approach them in small doses; each one of them is a complete unit, a complete narrative dissociated from others.”
Unique and most important aspects
In The Bed of Procrustes, Dr. Nassim Taleb shares his thoughts and insights as sayings that range from the pithy to the profound, from humorous to cynical. The most astonishing aspect of this book is that he is sharing his personal thoughts and observations rather than writing a collection of quotes from others. The author appears to use dialectical – and sometimes dichotomous – reasoning to convey his thoughts, and he strongly opposes false reductionism. Dr. Taleb writes, “The fool here is someone who does the wrong reduction for the sake of reduction.” General note to the reader: I believe I would have struggled to grasp more of the aphorisms in this book had I not already read the author’s previous books Fooled by Randomness, The Black Swan, and Antifragile.
Best quotes
“The test of originality for an idea is not the absence of one single predecessor but the presence of multiple but incompatible ones.”
“Never say no twice if you mean it.”
“Your reputation is harmed the most by what you say to defend it.”
“If someone is making an effort to ignore you, he is not ignoring you.”
“Never read a book review written by an author whose books you wouldn’t read.”
“Modernity needs to understand that being rich and becoming rich are not mathematically, personally, socially, and ethically the same thing.”
“It is good to not feel envy; but better to neither envy nor be envied.”
“Life is about early detection of the reversal point beyond which your own belongings (say, a house, country house, car, or business) start owning you.”
“It’s much harder to write a book review for a book you’ve read than for a book you haven’t read.”
“We unwittingly amplify commonalities with friends, dissimilarities with strangers, and contrasts with enemies.”
“Many are so unoriginal they study history to find mistakes to repeat.”
“Your duty is to scream those truths that one should shout but that are merely whispered.”
“Let us find what risks we can measure and these are the risks we should be taking.”
“Contra the prevailing belief, ‘success’ isn’t being on top of a hierarchy, it is standing outside all hierarchies.”
Who would enjoy this book?
Readers who enjoyed Dr. Nassim Taleb’s previous books Fooled by Randomness, The Black Swan, and Antifragile and are interested in the philosophical musings of Dr. Taleb would likely enjoy The Bed of Procrustes.
Who would not enjoy this book?
Readers who are not familiar with the author are less likely to enjoy The Bed of Procrustes.
Conclusion
The Bed of Procrustes is a collection of pearls of wisdom and philosophical musings by Dr. Nassim Taleb.