A brilliant and spirited little book of meditations and provocations by the bestselling author of The Black Swan, a book that has become a major cultural touchstone.  Procrustes, as Greek legend has it, demanded that his house guests fit into a particular bed in his home. If they were too short for the bed, he would stretch them until they fit; if they were too tall, he would chop off their heads or feet. Taleb sees Procrustes' bed as a metaphor for how we live our lives, adapting to boxes that don't fit, or stretched and cut by models or ways of thinking that don't correspond to the real world, or to human nature. The Black Swan was about the limits of knowledge and our blindness to the world that lies outside of our models and mental maps. The Bed of Procrustes takes this theme in new directions, building on Taleb's provocative arguments while presenting them in compressed form. The products of an incredibly vital and unique mind, these lively, double-take inducing bursts of anti-conventional wisdom range across subjects from having a job to the false wisdom of financial gurus, to exercise and living well. This little tome can be read in a single sitting, reread endlessly, and also given as an unforgettable gift to one's friends.