Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life

by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

The principle of intervention, like that of healers, is first do no harm (primum non nocere);

Bureaucracy is a construction by which a person is conveniently separated from the consequences of his or her actions.

You will never fully convince someone that he is wrong; only reality can.

Avoid taking advice from someone who gives advice for a living, unless there is a penalty for their advice.

if something stupid works (and makes money), it cannot be stupid.

when you are rewarded for perception, not results, you need to show sophistication.

Whatever you do, just don’t be a dog claiming to be a wolf.

What matters isn’t what a person has or doesn’t have; it is what he or she is afraid of losing. The more you have to lose, the more fragile you are.

action without talk supersedes talk without action.

Contemporary peers are valuable collaborators, not final judges.

What can be phrased and expressed in a clear narrative that convinces suckers will be a sucker trap.

I am renewable, not humanity or the ecosystem.

we need to be concerned with systemic effects: things that can affect more than one person should they happen.

Minority Rule: an asymmetry by which the behavior of the total is dictated by the preferences of a minority.