The Bed of Procrustes by Nassim Taleb

Key Takeaways

- Failure-resistant is achievable; failure-free is not

- What fools call “wasting time is most often the best investment

- Life is about execution rather than purpose

- It is a sign of weakness to avoid showing signs of weakness

- Knowing stuff others don’t know is most effective when others don’t know you know stuff they don’t know

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

- There are 2 types of people: those who try to win and those who try to win arguments. They are never the same

- The fastest way to become rich is to socialize with the poor; the fastest way to become poor is to socialize with the rich

- You exist if and only if you are free to do things without a visible objective, with no justification and, above all, outside the dictatorship of someone else’s narrative