Bed of Procrustes
The longevity of paradigms together with ambiguity aversion results in the tendency to force fit reality into paradigms that have outlived their usefulness. This is illustrated by the story of Procrustes, who was an inn-keeper in Greek mythology. In order to make the travelers fit in his bed, he cut off the limbs of those who were too tall and stretched those who were too short. Either way, “he had the bed fitting the visitor with total perfection.”[1]
See also:
- Paradigms can have phenomenal longevity
- Ambiguity aversion favors the known over the unknown
- Paradigms change when they can no longer address anomalies
Antifragile – Taleb (2012), Book II, § “Modernity and the Denial of Antifragility” ↩︎