Summary
Skin in the Game is Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s (NNT) fifth book in what he calls the Incerto, and it’s the most digestible I’ve read thus far (having read all but Fooled by Randomness). This one focuses more on asymmetry (and symmetry) in everyday life, particularly on the matters of career, ethics, and life in general.
What does that mean? Basically, rules for how to detect if something is pseudo-science (scientism), rules for how you should endeavour to conduct yourself in your career in business, and mental models for thinking about risk in these categories and in life in general.
Having now read most of his books, part of the reason this was digestible was that I’m familiar with his general premises; I would recommend reading his other books first, but this one will tie them together. Highly recommend.
Favourite Quotes
- “…studying courage in textbooks doesn’t make you any more courageous than eating cow meat makes you bovine.”
- “What matters isn’t what a person has or doesn’t have; it is what he or she is afraid of losing.”
- “…action without talk supersedes talk without action.”
- “Alfonso X of Spain, nicknamed El Sabio, “the wise”, had as a maxim: Burn old logs. Drink old wine. Read old books. Keep old friends.”
- “Never pay for complexity of presentation when all you need is results.”
- “If wealth is giving you fewer options instead of more (and more varied) options, you’re doing it wrong.”
- “Finally, when young people who want to help mankind come to me asking, “What should I do? I want to reduce poverty, save the world”, and similar noble aspirations at the macro-level, my suggestion is:
- 1) Never engage in virtue signaling;
- 2) Never engage in rent-seeking;
- 3) You must start a business. Put yourself on the line, start a business
- Yes, take risk, and if you get rich (which is optional), spend your money generously on others. We need people to take (bounded) risks”
- “Reading a history book, without putting its events in perspective, offers a similar bias to reading an account of life in New York seen from an emergency room at Bellevue Hospital.”
- “Love without sacrifice is theft (Procrustes)”
- “Courage is when you sacrifice your own well-being for the sake of the survival of a layer higher than yours.”