Bookworm: Skin in The Game by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

The problem with Taleb is not that he’s an a**hole. He as an a**hole. The problem with Taleb is that he is right.

Those are not my words. It’s from one of the blurbs for Taleb’s book Skin in The Game. And among many other surprising things about the book, one is that all the blurbs that appear on the jacket aren’t from other famous authors. Taleb took the testimonials from ordinary readers and printed it on the back of the book. Not because other famous authors weren’t willing to offer their testimonials — many of them would be honoured to do that — but it’s because Taleb doesn’t care.

Those who have read his books agree on one thing — Taleb is idiosyncratic and he is a genius.

In out bookworm series we have already reviewed Nassim Taleb’s earlier books — Fooled by Randomness, The Black Swan, The Bed of Procrustes, and Antifragile. Skin in the Game is Taleb’s latest book. It came out last year (2018) and I had been sitting on it for quite a while. Last month I finally managed to finish reading it. Like all Taleb’s books, this one also needs to be read at least twice (perhaps thrice) to be able to absorb all the wisdom in a meaningful way.

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