Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms

The Bed of Procrustes

By Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Who is Procrustes?

Procrustes, in Greek mythology, was an owner of an small estate in Attica. Procrustes who welcome guests into his home and give them a generous dinner. He wanted his beds to fit his travellers to perfection. Those who were too tall had their legs chopped off with an axe and those who were too small were stretched. Procrustes was killed by Theseus who asked Procrustes to lay down in his bed and then cut his head off to make him fit perfectly.

Every aphorism here is about a Procrustean bed of sorts-we humans, facing limits of knowledge, and things we do not observe, the unseen and the unknown, resolve the tension by squeezing life and the world into crisp commoditised ideas, reductive categories, specific vocabularies, and prepackaged narratives, which, on the occasion, has explosive consequences.

Aphorisms

“People reserve standard compliments for those who do not threaten their pride; the others they often praise by calling “arrogant”.”

“Since Cato the Elder, a certain type of maturity has shown up when one starts blaming the new generation for “shallowness” and praising the previous one for its “values””

“Most people fear being without audiovisual stimulation because they are too repetitive when they think and imagine things on their own”

“The difference between slaves in Roman and Ottoman days and today’s employees is that slaves did not need to flatter their boss”

“Only in recent history has “working hard” signalled pride rather than shame for lack of talent, finesse and mostly, sprezzatura”

“Meditation is a way to be narcissistic without hurting anyone”

“You can expect blowups and explosive errors in fields where there is a penalty for simplicity”