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Skin in the Game: The Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life
(Incerto #5)
by
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Black Swan, a bold new work that challenges many of our long-held beliefs about risk and reward, politics and religion, finance and personal responsibility
In his most provocative and practical book yet, one of the foremost thinkers of our time redefines what it means to understand the world, succeed in a profession, contri ...more
In his most provocative and practical book yet, one of the foremost thinkers of our time redefines what it means to understand the world, succeed in a profession, contri ...more
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Paperback, 272 pages
Published
June 1st 2018
by Allen Lane
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Start your review of Skin in the Game: The Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life

Skin in the Game is at the same time thought-provoking and original but also contradictory and sometimes absurd.
Let’s start with the cons:
1. I certainly won’t be the first to notice that Taleb can be mean-spirited. But why does he insist on presenting his views in this way? The communication of his ideas, often profound, does not require a mean-spirited or condescending tone. For however brilliant Taleb thinks he is, his skills in persuasion are severely lacking; he’s alienating a significant r ...more
Let’s start with the cons:
1. I certainly won’t be the first to notice that Taleb can be mean-spirited. But why does he insist on presenting his views in this way? The communication of his ideas, often profound, does not require a mean-spirited or condescending tone. For however brilliant Taleb thinks he is, his skills in persuasion are severely lacking; he’s alienating a significant r ...more

Taleb’s ‘Skin in the Game’ has been put together in a somewhat disorderly way, but the reasoning goes as follows:
1. The world in which we live is complex and eludes our sense-making faculties.
2. Our society has cultivated a privileged class of Intellectuals Yet Idiots (IYIs). These people monopolize positions of authority and routinely take decisions to intervene in that complex world, without however doing the effort to think through the cascading impacts of these decisions and being convenient ...more
1. The world in which we live is complex and eludes our sense-making faculties.
2. Our society has cultivated a privileged class of Intellectuals Yet Idiots (IYIs). These people monopolize positions of authority and routinely take decisions to intervene in that complex world, without however doing the effort to think through the cascading impacts of these decisions and being convenient ...more

SITG is an angry rant. It lacks structure. The core message - mainly because of the author’s often misplaced and wrong arguments against his self-created adversaries - is never examined beyond the title’s most known or intuitive conventional meaning. The basic concept is at least as old as the adage itself. The author does little to bolster the claim while spending all efforts on slamming real or imagined opponents. The book’s frequent diversions along with internal contradictions amid a rather
...more

From the back cover of the book jacket:
The problem with Taleb is not that he's an asshole. He is an asshole. The problem with Taleb is that he is right.This is the third book I've read by Nassim Taleb (The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable and Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder: Here is my review of Antifragile.) And this book, Skin in the Game is more quirky than either of his previous books--if that is at all possible. This book is poorly written. It jumps around from ...more

I’m improperly awed and professionally depressed by this guy. While I’ve been in love with the concept of asymmetry since, like, forever, he puts on it such an excruciating spin that… a lot of professions suddenly attain the unmistakable bullshit (or maybe swanshit!) flavor.
Anyway, this book lost a bit of its charm due to aggressive and seemingly random things aggregated together. I'm sure it's another case of 'it's not you, it's me', still, I felt the previous volumes were better grounded and m ...more
Anyway, this book lost a bit of its charm due to aggressive and seemingly random things aggregated together. I'm sure it's another case of 'it's not you, it's me', still, I felt the previous volumes were better grounded and m ...more

Cherry-picking meets ignorance of human nature meets naive interpretation of history meets erroneous assumptions.
If you cherry-pick the data, you can make ANY ridiculous hypothesis sound convincing.
Unlike those who complain about Taleb’s unresolved teenage angst, his thin-skinned hubris, or his lack of civility, I couldn’t care less about his crass remarks. My problem is with the ideas in this book, not its author, although I do question the intelligence of its author when his prose lapses into ...more
If you cherry-pick the data, you can make ANY ridiculous hypothesis sound convincing.
Unlike those who complain about Taleb’s unresolved teenage angst, his thin-skinned hubris, or his lack of civility, I couldn’t care less about his crass remarks. My problem is with the ideas in this book, not its author, although I do question the intelligence of its author when his prose lapses into ...more

Update July 22, 2021: Read the book a 4th time. When I got annoyed with vulgarity or repetition, I skipped a bit. I usually never had to skip more than a paragraph or two. The book read much more smoothly. I also read this book a page or two at a time at the beach or on a bus. It's a great book to read for a fourth time this way.
Update September 4, 2020. I changed my mind. I decided to rate this book after all.
Any book that has passages that are better on the third reading deserves five stars. ...more
Update September 4, 2020. I changed my mind. I decided to rate this book after all.
Any book that has passages that are better on the third reading deserves five stars. ...more

Pop-science in it's lowest form. Book reads like a poorly researched, hastily written college essay. Strings together a few nuggets of common sense wisdom with sizeable amounts of unreferenced BS. Taleb is a shark, living off a reputation and using his own fanbase like an ATM.
...more

In this book #4, Taleb is more arrogant and pretentious than ever. You can never let go of the feeling that this book is about him, rather than any other topic. He's become profoundly obnoxious and negative. Despite some good points in the book, reading it feels like carrying a burden.
In this new book Taleb goes to extra lengths to attack David Runciman, head of the politics department at Cambridge, and a Guardian book reviewer who had torn apart his previous "Antifragile" book. Runciman's crit ...more
In this new book Taleb goes to extra lengths to attack David Runciman, head of the politics department at Cambridge, and a Guardian book reviewer who had torn apart his previous "Antifragile" book. Runciman's crit ...more

Taleb has a few basic rules of writing, to wit:
* Never be boring
* Be sure to insult those you disagree with
* Remind the reader frequently of how smart you are, as evidenced by a multitude of quotations, in Latin wherever possible
* Mix the brilliant with the banal, the insightful with the sophomoric, the wise with the petty
* Keep the chapters short
* Roam widely across history to draw examples from, especially the classical world of the Eastern Mediterranean
* Remind the reader that although you ar ...more
* Never be boring
* Be sure to insult those you disagree with
* Remind the reader frequently of how smart you are, as evidenced by a multitude of quotations, in Latin wherever possible
* Mix the brilliant with the banal, the insightful with the sophomoric, the wise with the petty
* Keep the chapters short
* Roam widely across history to draw examples from, especially the classical world of the Eastern Mediterranean
* Remind the reader that although you ar ...more

I wanted to like this and I certainly did at the beginning. All of his insults are complex, original and amusing but he insults so many people so frequently that the process itself becomes tedious. I do enjoy his historical anecdotes, but again there are a large volume of them, and not always obviously with a point, other than a demonstration of his research or recall abilities. It is the fact that he criticises many individuals in passing with a specific but cryptic reference to something they
...more

Five stars only because six weren't available.
...more

Hey, another one who doesn't give a fuck.
NNT is a bit of a diva, and it is obvious that he has some beef with a lot of people. He certainly sounds right. But is he? I don't know.
The book revolves around the notion that people not having skin in the game will fuck us up, somehow. Turns out that the idea of skin in the game can be applied to a wide variety of fields and professions. Especially the ones Taleb doesn't like, like academics, policy makers, journalists. Oh, and rationality as you kno ...more
NNT is a bit of a diva, and it is obvious that he has some beef with a lot of people. He certainly sounds right. But is he? I don't know.
The book revolves around the notion that people not having skin in the game will fuck us up, somehow. Turns out that the idea of skin in the game can be applied to a wide variety of fields and professions. Especially the ones Taleb doesn't like, like academics, policy makers, journalists. Oh, and rationality as you kno ...more

Taleb has lost it. Regrettably. This book is a good example of someone doing a "Lord Kelvin", that is, making strong claims about things that are not within your field of expertise. Taleb is a statistician, but of course that doesn't hinder him from having very strong opinions on other matters such as other researchers' fields, politics, banking, journalism, to mention just a few.
That's a shame because I loved his first two books. However since Antifragility, quality has been on a downward slop ...more
That's a shame because I loved his first two books. However since Antifragility, quality has been on a downward slop ...more

Dec 21, 2017
Anton
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
ideas,
managing-self
3.5* - rounding up to 4.
Be warned: this book is a ranty, largely unstructured, flow-of-consciousness type stuff. It has an equal probability or either delighting the reader or driving them mad. I personally enjoy the erudite style of Taleb's argumentation and find his references and vignettes of the 'times gone by' intellectually stimulating. Also, the black-and-white bluntness of his position makes the book feel refreshing. You may not agree with Taleb's side, but you are never left in doubt wh ...more
Be warned: this book is a ranty, largely unstructured, flow-of-consciousness type stuff. It has an equal probability or either delighting the reader or driving them mad. I personally enjoy the erudite style of Taleb's argumentation and find his references and vignettes of the 'times gone by' intellectually stimulating. Also, the black-and-white bluntness of his position makes the book feel refreshing. You may not agree with Taleb's side, but you are never left in doubt wh ...more

Some really good insights in a very small book -
1. "When it comes to the country, I'm a libertarian, when it comes to the state, I'm a republican, when it comes to my city, I'm a Democrat, when it comes to my family, I'm a Socialist".
2. Cost benefit analysis is not possible when there is a probability of Ruin.
3. The west is in the process of committing ideological suicide (on minority rule).
4. Its easier to Macrobullshit than it is to Microbullshit.
5. What matters is not what a person has, but w ...more
1. "When it comes to the country, I'm a libertarian, when it comes to the state, I'm a republican, when it comes to my city, I'm a Democrat, when it comes to my family, I'm a Socialist".
2. Cost benefit analysis is not possible when there is a probability of Ruin.
3. The west is in the process of committing ideological suicide (on minority rule).
4. Its easier to Macrobullshit than it is to Microbullshit.
5. What matters is not what a person has, but w ...more

Dec 05, 2021
Pouri
marked it as read_summary
Shelves:
x_bplus_podcast,
economics,
to_read_full_version,
finance,
business,
psychology,
science,
philosophy
“The curse of modernity is that we are increasingly populated by a class of people who are better at explaining than understanding, or better at explaining than doing.”
― Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life
― Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life

First of all: I have no idea who the author is or why he matters or why *he thinks* he matters so much. There seems to be somewhat of a personal cult around him, so whatever, I'm going in unbiased.
The first 19% (can you even believe that?!) of this book is prologue and can only be described as a lose string of consciousness from a person that very obviously thinks very highly of themselves and seems to hate everything and everyone.
Nothing in this book makes any sense.
First of all, the chapters ...more
The first 19% (can you even believe that?!) of this book is prologue and can only be described as a lose string of consciousness from a person that very obviously thinks very highly of themselves and seems to hate everything and everyone.
Nothing in this book makes any sense.
First of all, the chapters ...more

Taleb's the hero.
...more

“The mark of a charlatan is to defend his position or attack a critic by focusing on some specific statement (“ look at what he said”) rather than blasting his exact position (“ look at what he means” or, more broadly, “look at what he stands for”)— for the latter requires an extensive grasp of the proposed idea.”
This quote from Mr. Taleb perfectly summarizes my problems with his book.
The general theme of the book is that one should be wary of those making decisions who lack consequences of thos ...more
This quote from Mr. Taleb perfectly summarizes my problems with his book.
The general theme of the book is that one should be wary of those making decisions who lack consequences of thos ...more

Aah, Taleb. I have read all his non-technical books at least twice, so of course it was with great enthusiasm that I bought this... SITG.
Bit of a bummer.
SITG has some great insights, but most of them were shared on his Twitter account, and his posts on Medium. That is:
(SITG book - Previous works - Medium posts = few new insights)
Also, a bit of complaining about how his ideas were not listened to.
But of course applaud the man for pursuing his ideas for more than 2 decades. Have learned quite a lo ...more
Bit of a bummer.
SITG has some great insights, but most of them were shared on his Twitter account, and his posts on Medium. That is:
(SITG book - Previous works - Medium posts = few new insights)
Also, a bit of complaining about how his ideas were not listened to.
But of course applaud the man for pursuing his ideas for more than 2 decades. Have learned quite a lo ...more

Brilliant book. Many chapters of the book are available on medium, for example https://medium.com/incerto/the-most-i...
Caveats:
* Taleb is **not** meant to be read literally.
* Read "Antifragile" or "Black Swan" before reading this to better appreciate the content, especially if Taleb's article on "Intellectual Yet Idiot" offends you https://medium.com/incerto/the-intell... Better get some "skin in the game" :D ...more
Caveats:
* Taleb is **not** meant to be read literally.
* Read "Antifragile" or "Black Swan" before reading this to better appreciate the content, especially if Taleb's article on "Intellectual Yet Idiot" offends you https://medium.com/incerto/the-intell... Better get some "skin in the game" :D ...more

I’ve read Taleb’s books The Black Swan and Fooled By Randomness so I’m accustomed to his lessons. With that said, I think this is a well-written book, as expected, but I don’t believe I learned much from it that I didn’t already know from his previous writings. The point that skin in the game is necessary for accurate examination of changes in the economy and policies is informative and one that economists often overlook, though I think Taleb exaggerates the rate economists overlook this point,
...more

As with most of Taleb's books, this one is poorly organized, full of childish insults and bravado, and makes some totally absurd claims. But this book also contains some startling, deep insights and ideas. It's frustrating to have to wade through a lot of bullshit to get to these interesting ideas, but when you finally get there, the pay off is pretty damn good. Here are some of the biggest insights I got from this book:
1. The central thesis is that "skin in the game" is essential for systems t ...more
1. The central thesis is that "skin in the game" is essential for systems t ...more

Reads like the Burn Book from Mean Girls.
Taleb spares no one, ripping professions, beliefs, jobs, and people—by name—apart. Especially Steven Pinker, whom he calls out more than twice.
Highly offensive, I found this book a riotous good time, hilarious, and razor sharp.
This ended up being one of my favorite books of 2018, completed on December 31st.
I will read this one again next year, for, as Taleb points out:
"... learning is rooted in repetition and convexity, meaning that the reading of a sin ...more
Taleb spares no one, ripping professions, beliefs, jobs, and people—by name—apart. Especially Steven Pinker, whom he calls out more than twice.
Highly offensive, I found this book a riotous good time, hilarious, and razor sharp.
This ended up being one of my favorite books of 2018, completed on December 31st.
I will read this one again next year, for, as Taleb points out:
"... learning is rooted in repetition and convexity, meaning that the reading of a sin ...more

Love this book. Much smaller in number of words than his others, but equally dense if not more so with ideas. It’s a great compliment to the rest of his books and ties his ideas together well.
I’ve heard a lot of otherwise smart people criticize Taleb as trying to sound smart without saying anything new or special, but I can’t disagree more.
If I had to distill everything Taleb into one idea, I would focus on the last few sentences of this latest book, which I will summarize in my own memory of ...more
I’ve heard a lot of otherwise smart people criticize Taleb as trying to sound smart without saying anything new or special, but I can’t disagree more.
If I had to distill everything Taleb into one idea, I would focus on the last few sentences of this latest book, which I will summarize in my own memory of ...more

Taleb, whose politics I did not pay attention to in Black Swan (and I skipped reading Antifragile), come off as a mix of right-neolib, classic liberal and Hayekian libertarian. It’s certainly possible, in addition, that he’s a Trump Train fellow traveler, though not riding the main line himself.
He’s anti-regulatory as part of libertarian part of him. Yes, agencies can suffer regulatory capture, but the libertarian idea espoused by him of regulation through private lawsuit doesn’t work. Most peop ...more
He’s anti-regulatory as part of libertarian part of him. Yes, agencies can suffer regulatory capture, but the libertarian idea espoused by him of regulation through private lawsuit doesn’t work. Most peop ...more

Skin in the game is needed in a lot of things and I love Taleb’s books and ideas. However, this book has fewer interesting ideas and less depth compared to his previous works. I had a hard time looking at everything from the prism of skin in the game.
There were only a few appearances of likeable characters like fat Tony. He was using the same old punching bags that he likes: economists, institutions, academics, social sciences, etc. Though he has issues with behavior economics but he keeps pick ...more
There were only a few appearances of likeable characters like fat Tony. He was using the same old punching bags that he likes: economists, institutions, academics, social sciences, etc. Though he has issues with behavior economics but he keeps pick ...more

I read this book a few months ago and enjoyed it. Taleb is kind of dickish but he often succeeds in making me question whether I'm smart enough to grasp what he's saying. This brings a special level of excitement to reading any of his works. To me, they present a challenge. A crossword puzzle of intellect with some pseudo elements.
The underlying concept in this book is evident from the title. It's an extrapolation of the principle-agent problem. Most of my notes from my original reading have bee ...more
The underlying concept in this book is evident from the title. It's an extrapolation of the principle-agent problem. Most of my notes from my original reading have bee ...more
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Nassim Nicholas Taleb spent 21 years as a risk taker (quantitative trader) before becoming a flaneur and researcher in philosophical, mathematical and (mostly) practical problems with probability.
Taleb is the author of a multivolume essay, the Incerto (The Black Swan, Fooled by Randomness, Antifragile, and Skin in the Game) an investigation of opacity, luck, uncertainty, probability, human erro ...more
Taleb is the author of a multivolume essay, the Incerto (The Black Swan, Fooled by Randomness, Antifragile, and Skin in the Game) an investigation of opacity, luck, uncertainty, probability, human erro ...more
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“I am, at the Fed level, libertarian;
at the state level, Republican;
at the local level, Democrat;
and at the family and friends level, a socialist.
If that saying doesn’t convince you of the fatuousness of left vs. right labels, nothing will.”
—
101 likes
at the state level, Republican;
at the local level, Democrat;
and at the family and friends level, a socialist.
If that saying doesn’t convince you of the fatuousness of left vs. right labels, nothing will.”
“The curse of modernity is that we are increasingly populated by a class of people who are better at explaining than understanding, or better at explaining than doing.”
—
80 likes
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