Skin in the GameSkin in the Game
Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life
Title rated 3.75 out of 5 stars, based on 116 ratings(116 ratings)
Book, 2018
Current format, Book, 2018, First edition, All copies in use.eBook
Also offered as eBook, Available. Available
From the New York Times best-selling author of The Black Swan comes a new work that challenges many of our long-held beliefs about risk and reward, politics and religion, finance and personal responsibility.
Discusses how the willingness to accept one's own risks is an essential attribute for defining what it means to understand the world, succeed in life, contribute to a fair and just society, and influence others.
Taleb, a Lebanese-American essayist, scholar, statistician, former trader, and risk analyst, called “the hottest thinker in the world”, focuses on problems of randomness, probability, and uncertainty. He contends that the world cannot be understood without having skin in the game. Having skin in the game is, for the great part, about honor, justice, and sacrifice. Applied as a rule, it reduces the effects of a number of divergences that bloomed with the growth of civilization: e.g., consequence and intention, expertise and charlatanism, action and cheap talk, honor and reputation, strength and display, among others. First, it is BS identifier and filter; second, it is about symmetry and reciprocity, not inflicting on others the cost of your mistakes; third, keeping an eye on how much information should be shared with others; and fourth, it is about rationality and the test of time. Skin in the Game is also about uncertainty and reality, symmetry in human affairs, information sharing, and rationality in complex systems and in the real world. Having a stake in the game engenders understanding of the puzzles that live beneath reality’s fine-grained matrix. Questions to be answered: Why do uncompromising minorities run the world? Why are there more people enslaved now than in Roman times? What is the foundational logic of risk bearing? Nineteen chapters are divided into eight books: introduction; a first look at agency; that greatest symmetry; wolves among goes; being alive means taking certain risks; deeper into agency; religion, belief, and skin in the game; risk and rationality. There is a glossary, technical appendix, notes, a bibliography, and appendixes. Annotation ©2018 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ' A bold work from the author of The Black Swan 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, contribute to a fair and just society, detect nonsense, and influence others. Citing examples ranging from Hammurabi to Seneca, Antaeus the Giant to Donald Trump, Nassim Nicholas Taleb shows how the willingness to accept one's own risks is an essential attribute of heroes, saints, and flourishing people in all walks of life.
As always both accessible and iconoclastic, Taleb challenges long-held beliefs about the values of those who spearhead military interventions, make financial investments, and propagate religious faiths. Among his insights:
' For social justice, focus on symmetry and risk sharing. You cannot make profits and transfer the risks to others, as bankers and large corporations do. You cannot get rich without owning your own risk and paying for your own losses. Forcing skin in the game corrects this asymmetry better than thousands of laws and regulations.
' Ethical rules aren't universal. You're part of a group larger than you, but it's still smaller than humanity in general.
' Minorities, not majorities, run the world. The world is not run by consensus but by stubborn minorities imposing their tastes and ethics on others.
' You can be an intellectual yet still be an idiot. 'Educated philistines' have been wrong on everything from Stalinism to Iraq to low-carb diets.
' Beware of complicated solutions (that someone was paid to find). A simple barbell can build muscle better than expensive new machines.
' True religion is commitment, not just faith. How much you believe in something is manifested only by what you're willing to risk for it.
The phrase 'skin in the game' is one we have often heard but rarely stopped to truly dissect. It is the backbone of risk management, but it's also an astonishingly rich worldview that, as Taleb shows in this book, applies to all aspects of our lives. As Taleb says, 'the symmetry of skin in the game is a simple rule that's necessary for fairness and justice, and the ultimate BS-buster," and 'Never trust anyone who doesn't have skin in the game. Without it, fools and crooks will benefit, and their mistakes will never come back to haunt them.'
Discusses how the willingness to accept one's own risks is an essential attribute for defining what it means to understand the world, succeed in life, contribute to a fair and just society, and influence others.
Taleb, a Lebanese-American essayist, scholar, statistician, former trader, and risk analyst, called “the hottest thinker in the world”, focuses on problems of randomness, probability, and uncertainty. He contends that the world cannot be understood without having skin in the game. Having skin in the game is, for the great part, about honor, justice, and sacrifice. Applied as a rule, it reduces the effects of a number of divergences that bloomed with the growth of civilization: e.g., consequence and intention, expertise and charlatanism, action and cheap talk, honor and reputation, strength and display, among others. First, it is BS identifier and filter; second, it is about symmetry and reciprocity, not inflicting on others the cost of your mistakes; third, keeping an eye on how much information should be shared with others; and fourth, it is about rationality and the test of time. Skin in the Game is also about uncertainty and reality, symmetry in human affairs, information sharing, and rationality in complex systems and in the real world. Having a stake in the game engenders understanding of the puzzles that live beneath reality’s fine-grained matrix. Questions to be answered: Why do uncompromising minorities run the world? Why are there more people enslaved now than in Roman times? What is the foundational logic of risk bearing? Nineteen chapters are divided into eight books: introduction; a first look at agency; that greatest symmetry; wolves among goes; being alive means taking certain risks; deeper into agency; religion, belief, and skin in the game; risk and rationality. There is a glossary, technical appendix, notes, a bibliography, and appendixes. Annotation ©2018 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ' A bold work from the author of The Black Swan 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, contribute to a fair and just society, detect nonsense, and influence others. Citing examples ranging from Hammurabi to Seneca, Antaeus the Giant to Donald Trump, Nassim Nicholas Taleb shows how the willingness to accept one's own risks is an essential attribute of heroes, saints, and flourishing people in all walks of life.
As always both accessible and iconoclastic, Taleb challenges long-held beliefs about the values of those who spearhead military interventions, make financial investments, and propagate religious faiths. Among his insights:
' For social justice, focus on symmetry and risk sharing. You cannot make profits and transfer the risks to others, as bankers and large corporations do. You cannot get rich without owning your own risk and paying for your own losses. Forcing skin in the game corrects this asymmetry better than thousands of laws and regulations.
' Ethical rules aren't universal. You're part of a group larger than you, but it's still smaller than humanity in general.
' Minorities, not majorities, run the world. The world is not run by consensus but by stubborn minorities imposing their tastes and ethics on others.
' You can be an intellectual yet still be an idiot. 'Educated philistines' have been wrong on everything from Stalinism to Iraq to low-carb diets.
' Beware of complicated solutions (that someone was paid to find). A simple barbell can build muscle better than expensive new machines.
' True religion is commitment, not just faith. How much you believe in something is manifested only by what you're willing to risk for it.
The phrase 'skin in the game' is one we have often heard but rarely stopped to truly dissect. It is the backbone of risk management, but it's also an astonishingly rich worldview that, as Taleb shows in this book, applies to all aspects of our lives. As Taleb says, 'the symmetry of skin in the game is a simple rule that's necessary for fairness and justice, and the ultimate BS-buster," and 'Never trust anyone who doesn't have skin in the game. Without it, fools and crooks will benefit, and their mistakes will never come back to haunt them.'
Title availability
Find this title on
LINK+About
Subject and genre
Details
Publication
- New York : Random House, [2018]
Opinion
More from the community
Community lists featuring this title
There are no community lists featuring this title
Community contributions
There are no quotations from this title
There are no quotations from this title
From the community