#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."
