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
