The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms

by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

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 commoditized ideas, reductive categories, specific vocabularies, and prepackaged narratives,

To bankrupt a fool, give him information.

Modernity’s double punishment is to make us both age prematurely and live longer.

When we want to do something while unconsciously certain to fail, we seek advice so we can blame someone else for the failure.

Much of the difference between what is work and what is leisure is branding. –

The first one who uses “but” has lost the argument.

Usually, what we call a “good listener” is someone with skillfully polished indifference.

For the compassionate, sorrow is more easily displaced by another sorrow than by joy. –

Wisdom in the young is as unattractive as frivolity in the elderly.

It is a very powerful manipulation to let others win the small battles.

If you want strangers to help you, smile. For those close to you, cry.

The ultimate freedom lies in not having to explain why you did something.

The book is the only medium left that hasn’t been corrupted by the profane: everything else on your eyelids manipulates you with an ad.* –

The opposite of success isn’t failure; it is name-dropping.

There is no clearer sign of failure than a middle-aged man boasting of his performance in college.

You are rich if and only if money you refuse tastes better than money you accept.

The difference between love and happiness is that those who talk about love tend to be in love, but those who talk about happiness tend to be not happy. –

Most feed their obsessions by trying to get rid of them.

Fitness is certainly the sign of strength, but outside of natural stimuli the drive to acquire fitness can signal some deep incurable weakness.

Charm is the ability to insult people without offending them; nerdiness the reverse.

Bureaucracy is a construction designed to maximize the distance between a decision-maker and the risks of the decision. –

The most important aspect of fasting is that you feel deep, undirected gratitude when you break the fast.

If you need to listen to music while walking, don’t walk; and please don’t listen to music. –

It used to take seven years to figure out if a book is a book or journalism between covers. Now all one needs is to wait two years. Soon, a few months.

For pleasure, read one chapter by Nabokov. For punishment, two.

A good maxim allows you to have the last word without even starting a conversation.

Almutanabbi boasted that he was the greatest of all Arab poets, but he said so in the greatest of all Arab poems.

Wit seduces by signaling intelligence without nerdiness.

Meditation is a way to be narcissistic without hurting anyone.

Just as dyed hair makes older men less attractive, it is what you do to hide your weaknesses that makes them repugnant.

When positive, show net; when negative, show gross.

Bring the good news in trickles, the bad news in lumps. –

The general principle of antifragility: it is much better to do things you cannot explain than explain things you cannot do.

The flip side: the worst pain inflicted on you will come from someone who at some point in your life cared about you.

Don’t cross a river, because it is on average four feet deep. This is also known as Jensen’s inequality.