A condensed guide to life from the bestselling author of "The Black Swan", Nassim Nicholas Taleb's "The Bed of Procrustes" is an invaluable collection of aphorisms navigate the modern world. 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. "Happily provocative ...blistering ...his observations concern superiority, wealth, suckerdom, academia, modernity, technology and the all-purpose, ignorant "they" ...very quotable". ("The New York Times"). "A master philosopher". ("The Times"). "Taleb's crystalline nuggets of thought stand alone like esoteric poems". ("Financial Times"). "Opinionated and witty...It showcases his wit and learning, and provides ways to fillet his enemies". ("Independent on Sunday"). Nassim Nicholas Taleb spends most of his time as a flaneur, meditating in cafes across the planet. A former trader, he is currently Distinguished Professor of Risk Engineering at New York University. He is the author of "Fooled by Randomness" and "The Black Swan", an international bestseller which has become an intellectual, social, and cultural touchstone.