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Title details for Skin in the Game by Nassim Nicholas Taleb - Available

Skin in the Game

Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life

#5 in series

by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Joe Ochman
Audiobook
1 of 4 copies available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
1 of 4 copies available
#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.”

  • Creators

  • Series

    Incerto

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    February 27, 2018

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780525630920
      • File size: 240473 KB
      • Duration: 08:20:59

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Taleb provides some simple but often unrealized considerations on how people understand and operate within the power differentials of everyday life. Narrator Joe Ochman has a deep and gravelly voice that effectively draws in listeners and maintains their attention with a deliberate delivery and strong projection. However, Ochman's tone mixed with Taleb's prose makes the audiobook seem like a screed against other intellectuals, whom he can't stop attacking. Inevitably, the advice he provides makes sense, yet Ochman's execution is likely to alienate listeners even though it seems in alignment with the prose and word choices. Too often, Taleb's advice on understanding the underpinnings of social power sound judgmental and condescending to listeners. L.E. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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