The Bed of Procrustes

Zusatztext Praise for Nassim Nicholas Taleb The most prophetic voice of all. GQ The hottest thinker in the world. Bryan Appleyard! The Sunday Times (London) [Taleb writes] in a style that owes as much to Stephen Colbert as it does to Michel de Montaigne. The Wall Street Journal Idiosyncratically brilliant. Niall Ferguson! Los Angeles Times Informationen zum Autor Nassim Nicholas Taleb has devoted his life to problems of uncertainty, probability, and knowledge. He spent nearly two decades as a businessman and quantitative trader before becoming a full-time philosophical essayist and academic researcher in 2006. Although he spends most of his time in the intense seclusion of his study, or as a flâneur meditating in cafés, he is currently Distinguished Professor of Risk Engineering at New York University's Polytechnic Institute. His main subject matter is decision making under opacitythat is, a map and a protocol on how we should live in a world we don't understand. Taleb's books have been published in forty-one languages. Klappentext The Bed of Procrustes is a standalone book in Nassim Nicholas Taleb's landmark Incerto series! an investigation of opacity! luck! uncertainty! probability! human error! risk! and decision-making in a world we don't understand. The other books in the series are Fooled by Randomness! The Black Swan! Antifragile! and Skin in the Game. 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. "Taleb's crystalline nuggets of thought stand alone like esoteric poems."-Financial Times 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 statusbut 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. - ...

Praise for Nassim Nicholas Taleb
 
“The most prophetic voice of all.” —GQ
 
“The hottest thinker in the world.” —Bryan Appleyard, The Sunday Times (London)
 
“[Taleb writes] in a style that owes as much to Stephen Colbert as it does to Michel de Montaigne.” —The Wall Street Journal
 
“Idiosyncratically brilliant.” —Niall Ferguson, Los Angeles Times

Autorentext

Nassim Nicholas Taleb has devoted his life to problems of uncertainty, probability, and knowledge. He spent nearly two decades as a businessman and quantitative trader before becoming a full-time philosophical essayist and academic researcher in 2006. Although he spends most of his time in the intense seclusion of his study, or as a flâneur meditating in cafés, he is currently Distinguished Professor of Risk Engineering at New York University’s Polytechnic Institute. His main subject matter is “decision making under opacity”—that is, a map and a protocol on how we should live in a world we don’t understand.
 
Taleb’s books have been published in forty-one languages.

Klappentext

The Bed of Procrustes is a standalone book in Nassim Nicholas Taleb's landmark Incerto series, an investigation of opacity, luck, uncertainty, probability, human error, risk, and decision-making in a world we don't understand. The other books in the series are Fooled by Randomness, The Black Swan, Antifragile, and Skin in the Game.

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.

"Taleb's crystalline nuggets of thought stand alone like esoteric poems."-Financial Times

Zusammenfassung
**The author of the modern classics The Black Swan, Fooled by Randomness, and Antifragile, Nassim Nicholas Taleb expresses major ideas in ways you least expect in this collection of aphorisms and meditations—now expanded with fifty percent more material than the hardcover.

The Bed of Procrustes takes its title from the Greek myth of a man who made his visitors fit his bed to perfection, either by stretching them or by 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 with the modern diseases of nerdiness, philistinism, and phonies.

Leseprobe
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…