The last aphorism is one of Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s favourite, or rather the one “he likes more than others”.
Taleb, a Lebanese “technical philosopher”, likes turning things on their head and, he confesses, that he is not too popular for it (especially with economists). The 50-year-old author of

the bestsellers, Black Swan and Fooled by Randomness, was in Mumbai on Friday with his latest offering, The Bed of Procrustes, a book of aphorisms.

While religion and ethics might promote the idea of good and imbibe fear of retribution, for Taleb the idea is that one does good because they are good. “This is pre-Christian thought. It is part of your nature to do something regardless of the pay off. This is unconditional but these values are lost today,” said the former Wall Street trader, risk expert and practitioner of mathematical finance.