The Bed of Procrustes

Critics

• The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms, By Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of the zeitgeisty, banker-bashing bestseller The Black Swan, returns here with a collection of aphorisms that revolve around what Taleb calls the "general theme of my work...the limitations of human knowledge". I find it ... (read full critics)

  independent published on Sun, 21 Aug 2011

• The Bed of Procrustes, By Nassim Nicholas Taleb

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb, a Wall Street trader-turned- flâneur, is the author of two previous bestselling works of idiosyncratic non-fiction, Fooled by Randomness and The Black Swan, on the subject of life's unpredictability. The Bed of Procrustes offer ... (read full critics)

  independent published on Sun, 9 Jan 2011

2 Reviews

• 2 people find this helpful

  

  fallacious rants

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb wrote some successful books and came to the conclusion he is a genius. Therefore he assembled a collection of pretentious remarks, insulting to some categories (employees, athletes) he assimilates to animals or morons.

  Taleb violates some basic principle of civil argumentatio ... (continue)

  Nassim Nicholas Taleb wrote some successful books and came to the conclusion he is a genius. Therefore he assembled a collection of pretentious remarks, insulting to some categories (employees, athletes) he assimilates to animals or morons.

  Taleb violates some basic principle of civil argumentation, by starting with false assumptions.
  Look at this aphorism:
  Atheism (materialism) means treating the dead as if they were unborn. After that, Taleb adds a virtuous I won't.
  As far as I know, materialism means treating the dead as if they were dead and that's all. Any materialist would aknowledge that Julius Caesar, or Einstein, have on our current 2011 situation a better chance to influence events than a child who will be born in 2012, isn't it?

  Some statements are plainly ridiculous and have nothing to do with the book's theme on "limitations of human knowledge":
  sports feminize men and masculinize women.

  Is this helpful?

  Plucino said on Aug 14, 2011 about the Hardcover edition | 1 feedback

• 

  Quite pretentious. And quite useless. The best word for describing this editorial effort is: exploitation.The metaphor which gives the book its title is useful, though.

  Is this helpful?

  dario villa said on Jul 1, 2011 about the Hardcover edition | Add your feedback

Book Details

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• English Books
• Others 160 Pages
• ISBN-10: 0241954096
• ISBN-13: 9780241954096
• Publisher: Penguin
• Pub date: Sep 12, 2011
• Also available as: Hardcover and eBook

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