15: What makes an original; The bed of procrustes; and more..
mohamadahmad.substack.com
Hey friends, hope the day fins you well. Here are my notes: Review of The bed of Procrustes: In this short(very long) book, Taleb likens The modern way of thinking to the bed of procruste. As the ancient myth goes, Procruste doggedly believed that he can fit all of his guests in his one size fits all bed, by either stretching them or amputating their limbs. Before long, this method of dealing with guests backfired, and, in order to be fitted in his own bed, procrustean had his head cut clean off his body by non other than Thesus. Taleb argues that the procrustean bed is what describes most of how modernity operates. We fit humans into narratives,economies into economic ideas, the uncertain world into our limited mental models. We created novel ideas designed to numb the mind like employement, journalism, and media. We adapt humans to our technologies instead of the reverse. We get fooled by randomness when randomness doesn't exist. We refuse to acknowledge the limitedness of our knowledge, and we make science has the final word, even for things behind the veil of opacity. Taleb compresses his understanding of the world into compact nuggets of poetic, counterintuitive aphorisms. You read one aphorism and then a light goes off in your head; why did i not think of it this way before? You'd tell yourself. Take for instance this aphorism: "they call detecting patterns intelligence, I call intelligence avoiding false patterns", or this one: you're a fool if you don't take advantage( make profts) of what complaints, flaws,and wrongs you see in society". Taleb espouses the reductionist frame of mind: Know what not to consume, what to ignore, learn by substraction; learn what not to do, have anti-models,people you don't wanna be like,and on and on..
15: What makes an original; The bed of procrustes; and more..
15: What makes an original; The bed of…
15: What makes an original; The bed of procrustes; and more..
Hey friends, hope the day fins you well. Here are my notes: Review of The bed of Procrustes: In this short(very long) book, Taleb likens The modern way of thinking to the bed of procruste. As the ancient myth goes, Procruste doggedly believed that he can fit all of his guests in his one size fits all bed, by either stretching them or amputating their limbs. Before long, this method of dealing with guests backfired, and, in order to be fitted in his own bed, procrustean had his head cut clean off his body by non other than Thesus. Taleb argues that the procrustean bed is what describes most of how modernity operates. We fit humans into narratives,economies into economic ideas, the uncertain world into our limited mental models. We created novel ideas designed to numb the mind like employement, journalism, and media. We adapt humans to our technologies instead of the reverse. We get fooled by randomness when randomness doesn't exist. We refuse to acknowledge the limitedness of our knowledge, and we make science has the final word, even for things behind the veil of opacity. Taleb compresses his understanding of the world into compact nuggets of poetic, counterintuitive aphorisms. You read one aphorism and then a light goes off in your head; why did i not think of it this way before? You'd tell yourself. Take for instance this aphorism: "they call detecting patterns intelligence, I call intelligence avoiding false patterns", or this one: you're a fool if you don't take advantage( make profts) of what complaints, flaws,and wrongs you see in society". Taleb espouses the reductionist frame of mind: Know what not to consume, what to ignore, learn by substraction; learn what not to do, have anti-models,people you don't wanna be like,and on and on..