Marx was (perhaps) globally wrong (but locally right); Hayek was mildly right all the way. But Marx, when right, had huge insights; e.g. Chapter 14 of Das Capital I on the Division of Labor and its dismemberment of humans. Immense erudition: he moves from Xenophon to obscure German writers. Hayek’s writing is indigestibly dull (and according to J.G. he was dull in person), Marx is lively, rich, and gripping. Compare the looks of the two fellows.
Who would you like to have dinner with?

Shared by JohnH

HatTip to Dave Lull – Thanks Dave!

The Bed of Procrustes by Nassim Nicholas Taleb – Random House

I can’t tell when Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of The Black Swan and Fooled by Randomness, is serious and when he’s winking wildly in his newest book, The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms. My bemused and befuddled response to the book is either a testament to my insight or ignorance. I freely throw my hands up in the air and declare that I do not know which it is.

The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms

Taleb is a modern philosopher mislabelled as a finance guru by the mainstream media. His insights into finance are well established in his earlier books, but any writer or reporter who narrowly defines Taleb in this fashion misses the point.

Fooled by Randomness and The Black Swan, taken together, provide a complex view of human behavior that examines why humans make decisions and act on those decisions. The much deeper premise – that so much of what drives our experience is a function of what we do not know, rather than what we think we know – ties in with the twinned concepts of robustness and fragility.