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A condensed guide to life, Nassim Nicholas Taleb's The Bed of Procrustes is an invaluable collection of aphorisms to help you navigate the modern world.

Second edition, revised and expanded

Why are we so often unwilling to accept that life is unpredictable? In this brilliant book Nassim Nicholas Taleb distils his idiosyncratic wisdom to demolish our illusions, contrasting the classical values of courage, elegance and erudition against modern philistinism and phoniness. Only by accepting what we don't know, he shows, can we see the world as it really is. Like Twain and Wilde before him, Taleb eats paradoxes for breakfast... The aphorism is Taleb to a tee. It showcases his wit and learning, and provides ways to fillet his enemies. All his usual suspects are present to be corrected: bankers, fools, politicians, journalists... Present, too, are his heroes: the curious, the intellectually anarchistic, the idle philosopher -- James Kidd * Independent on Sunday * [A] quirky, entertaining collection of aphorisms, covering everything from the web to the injuriousness of doing too much work... a wry, often hila rious glimpse -- Robert Collins * The Times *

The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms