I recently finished Nassim Taleb’s latest book “Skin in the Game.” Much like Antifragile previously, I highly recommend reading it. The subtitle of the book is “Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life” and while I am not a fan of the obsession of publishers to add a subtitle to every non-fiction book (try finding one without), asymmetries are the leitmotif that runs throughout, including a wonderfully succinct table on “Asymmetries in Society.”
The book is in the classical philosophical tradition of lessons that one can actually apply to one’s own life, ranging from how to pick a surgeon to how to maximize one’s freedom to act. Taleb is at his best when he ties together mathematical analysis with observations about present day society and then relates it all back to a long history of thought and the evolution of language. There are many chapters in the book, including one on the minority rule and one on the Lindy effect, where each one is worth the price of the entire work and deserves to be reread multiple times. Another example of a gem occurs early on in a discussion of the evolution of moral symmetry and why the silver rule beats the golden rule (I won’t spoil it here – buy the book for that discussion alone).
Taleb is at his worst when he is at his most combative. One example is his dismissal of Piketty’s work on inequality. Taleb rightly argues that a dynamic measure of inequality based on ergodicity is far better than a static one. That’s insightful and elegant. But then Taleb goes on to dismiss all of the evidence as if it was just static and as if Piketty doesn’t understand a concept such as ergodicity. Knowing Piketty and having slogged through his book, I submit that both of these assertions are incorrect. A different model of engagement would have been to propose ergodicity as a better measure and then simply ask for evidence. That might open a door instead of slamming one shut.
Slamming doors and picking fights is part of Taleb’s style, however, and is consistent with some of the arguments in Skin in the Game and in Antifragile. A fight gains more rapid exposure for an idea, as the pushback from the other side amplifies the original message (and based on book sales and Twitter follower count that strategy clearly works). A fight also risks reputation and that’s a way of putting skin in the game. That’s likely important to Taleb because otherwise he might leave himself open to the criticism that Skin in the Game borders at times on the kind of advice that he rightly criticizes for, well, not having skin in the game.
This is a good moment to point out that we should all seek out writers with whom we disagree at least some of the time. If we only read books by authors where we agree with every one of their tweets, why bother? What are we expecting to learn? Too many times we are letting our emotional reaction to something an author has said or done stand in the way of engaging with their arguments. Taleb certainly provokes a strong reaction at times, but by all means read “Skin in the Game” nonetheless.
