Some Books

On this trip, I finally had time to read some books including Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Taleb, a book recommendation from Nancy. This is one of the first nonfiction books I have finished (or even started on) in a long time. The main idea behind the book is that the role randomness plays in our lives is much greater than we suspect and that as humans we tend to overemphasize and overestimate the effects of causality. Taleb continues to explain how randomness permeates all aspects of our lives whether we are conscious of it or not.

Taleb also talks briefly about how to live in the face of a world filled with randomness, pointing out the fact that we are constantly fooled by our humanity and our emotions. As people, we are programmed to be loyal to ideas, causes, etc (due to emotions, rationalization by emotions). This blind loyalty can be helpful or harmful to us, and is something we should be aware of. Some of the ideas Taleb presents sound Daoist to me (i.e. the wise man knows he knows nothing, the Way cannot be explained through any human models/language). For himself, Taleb believes that the best way to live in a world of randomness is to combat it through "wisdom, upright dealing, and courage." Although most of the ideas presented in the book are not new ideas, he combines these ideas in a funny and insightful way. I definitely recommend Fooled by Randomness to anyone.

All this reminds me of some lines from Wordsworth:

Is aught so certain as that man is doomed
To breathe beneath a vault of ignorance?
The natural roof of that dark house in which
His soul is pent! How little can be known--
This is the wise man's sigh; how far we err--
This is the good man's not unfrequent pang!
--From the Excursion, Book 5th, The Pastor

Another book I finished this week, similar in some aspects to Fooled, was recommended to me by Lisa. The book was the Knight in Rusty Armor by Robert Fischer, a parable about a knight that goes on a quest on the path of truth to shed himself of his armor (which has become permanently lodged to himself, so much so that squirrels have to chew up nuts and push them through his visor for him). He has to endure trials upon the path of Truth including the castles of Silence, Knowledge (self), and Doubt. It echoes the same themes of the danger of clinging to your beliefs and how to live true to yourself. The knight learns from Merlin, his entourage of wood animals, and ultimately himself that ambition from the heart is what will make you happy and beautiful not ambition from the mind. His final trial is to jump off the cliff of Truth into an abyss of the unknown. Thus he is set free by his willingness to embracing the unknown. Awakening on a plain he reflects that, "he almost died from all the tears he had left uncried," and goes on to live life as an awakened soul.

I have nothing more to say after reading all this advice on the good life, except easier said than done and that I still think Wordsworth says it best:

On that best portion of a good man's life,
His little, nameless, unremembered, acts
--From Lines Written A Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey