Two -Fisting It

Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse: What Makes You Not a Buddhist

The sayings of the Buddha are among the most succinct, meaningful things ever said by a man. Silly me, thinking that things said about the Buddha would approach that profundity, simply by virtue of content. Khyentse tries, of course, but his aim is to make the ideas of Buddhism accessible. While he manages to capture the basics and convey them acceptably, he misses the spirit of the matter, and it's that which makes the Buddha's sayings worthwhile in the first place.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb: The Black Swan

I have no problem with the central idea of this book. The idea that we can't prove anything, that one observation (such as that of a single black swan) can invalidate everything we believe (such as that all swans are white). Of course, the idea is not Taleb's. Karl Popper has been credited with the theory, although it could be argued that Taleb puts it more succinctly and accessibly.

The problem with The Black Swan is that Taleb is such an insufferable pig that I could scarcely stomach the book. He says it himself, even, describing a verbal harangue by "a prominent member of the mathematical establishment" who "started hurling insults at me for having desecrated the institution,saying I lacked pudheur (modesty)". Of course, neither is modesty one of my own key descriptors; I cannot fault a writer for lacking modesty. What is nauseating is when an author views his lack of modesty as a credential, and writes about it in a book that nothing to do with modesty, and should have nothing to do with the author at all. Taleb drops names, recounts irrelevant personal anecdotes, and masturbates for pages upon pages before he gets to the point.

The biggest flaw with the book is, however, that itis one big, tedious example of the very thing against which the author cautions, namely constructing a narrative to fit and confirm our paradigm. The idea of the black swan and the story of Yevgenia's book are only a few of the imaginary metaphors Taleb uses to confirm and support his meme. The problem is, as Popper realized, you cannot confirm anything in this life, especially not your own ego.