20 aphorisms from Nassim Taleb
"The three most harmful addictions are heroin, carbohydrates, and a monthly salary"
The Bed of Procrustes, the title of Nassim Taleb's book of aphorisms, takes its title from Greek mythology.
Procrustes owned a small estate along the sacred way between Athens and Eleusis. He invited every passer-by to spend the night in his iron bed. No one ever fit the bed exactly, so he would physically alter his visitors so they would fit by stretching or amputating. Eventually he was fitted to his own bed by Theseus.
Even in myth, that sounds pretty grotesque. Who would do such a thing? Who would take something that doesn't fit and make it fit?
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Well, we do this all the time. Not with people but with ideas. I think that's Taleb's point.
Taleb contrasts the ideal classical values against "modern diseases of nerdiness, philistinism, and phoniness."
You can consider this a stand alone, yet synthesized, version of Taleb's other works: Fooled by Randomness, The Black Swan, and Antifragile. All of these books deal with how to live in a world we don't quite understand (or as Taleb would put it, "how we deal, and should deal, with what we don't know.")
Education
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Erudite
Anger
Advice
Winning arguments
Listening
On our need for stimulation
Newspapers
Freedom
Modernity
Inversion
You can tell a lot about people from their heroes. Taleb inverts this.
Debates
Addiction
Writing
Book reviews
Information age
This is a point he elaborates on in detail:
Via negativa
Trust
Convincing others
What do you do when nobody is looking?
More from Farnam Street...
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
'Make legal immigration a more plausible option'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published
-
LA-to-Las Vegas high-speed rail line breaks ground
Speed Read The railway will be ready as soon as 2028
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Israel's military intelligence chief resigns
Speed Read Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva is the first leader to quit for failing to prevent the Hamas attack in October
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published