The Bed of Procrustes - Don't read this book! It'll only upset you!

Who the hell is Procrustes and “Are you going to bore me with another book review?” 

Grow up and get wise!  Procrustes is a figure from Greek Mythology, or ancient religion, if you prefer.  Here’s the short version;

Procrustes was a man who made his visitors fit his bed to perfection by either stretching them or cutting their limbs.

A book about a weirdo?  Not exactly.  Nassim Taleb’s view of the modern world, as expressed in this book of aphorisms, is that humans are being modified to fit technology, reality being bent to fit economic models, diseases being invented to sell drugs, and the breadth of intelligence being limited to what can be tested in a classroom.

Taleb’s inventive and often humorously pithy remarks will wake you up, make you think, and make you laugh out loud.  Don't like to laugh?  Pick another book.

Sounds a bit too New Age, or maybe esoteric?  Check out this tidbit:

The best revenge on a liar is to convince him that you believe what he said.

Or how about this one:  If you want people to read a book, tell them it’s overrated.

Part psychology, part insightful, part surgeons knife slicing through marriage, economics, politics, and everyday life, you could read this book in an hour….but you won’t.  Your brain will catch on a phrase and stop your thoughts like a rowboat’s bow hitting a rocky shore.  Your mind will churn.  Often you’ll look around for someone to share these darts of logic, these reflective mirrors.  You’ll come across:  Nothing is more permanent than “temporary” arrangements, deficits, truces, relationships; and nothing is more temporary than permanent ones.

The book gets laid aside. Your attitude swings this way and that.  You mentally review and ponder.  Hours or days later, you once again grab the book by the throat and your rowboat floats free of the shoals.

Nassim Taleb’s books are like that.  They challenge, but at the same time entertain.  Have preconceptions?  They’re sure to be twisted and blurred.  Think your persuasions won’t be carved with Taleb’s scalpel?  Think again.

But, try as you might, you can’t forget this book and the sometimes obtuse approach that unravels things you’ve previously thought about and things you’ve never considered.

The Bed of Procrustes.  Pick it up once and you’ll pick it up again and again.