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The cover of Skin in the Game

Skin in the Game

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Why people who bear the consequences of their decisions deserve more trust than those who do not, and what that asymmetry reveals about risk, ethics and society.

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23 parts, about 29 minutes to read.

Why read it

  • Argues that people who give advice or make decisions should bear the downside when they are wrong, not just collect the upside
  • Shows how a small, stubborn minority can impose its preferences on everyone, from kosher drinks and non GMO food to religion
  • Separates rare risks that can ruin you for good from ordinary ones, and explains why caution about ruin is rational

Who it is for

  • Investors and traders who manage other people's money
  • Readers wary of experts, consultants and policy advisers
  • Employees and founders weighing freedom against security

What the summary covers

  1. Prologue: Antaeus Whacked2 min
  2. Prologue, Part 2: A Brief Tour of Symmetry2 min
  3. Prologue, Part 3: The Ribs of the Incerto1 min
  4. Why Each One Should Eat His Own Turtles2 min
  5. The Most Intolerant Wins2 min
  6. How to Legally Own Another Person1 min
  7. The Skin of Others in Your Game1 min
  8. Life in the Simulation Machine1 min
  9. The Intellectual Yet Idiot1 min
  10. Inequality and Skin in the Game2 min
  11. An Expert Called Lindy1 min
  12. Surgeons Should Not Look Like Surgeons1 min
  13. Only the Rich Are Poisoned: The Preferences of Others1 min
  14. Facta non Verba (Deeds Before Words)1 min
  15. The Facts Are True, the News Is Fake1 min
  16. The Merchandising of Virtue1 min
  17. Peace, Neither Ink nor Blood1 min
  18. They Don't Know What They Are Talking About When They Talk About Religion1 min
  19. No Worship Without Skin in the Game1 min
  20. Is the Pope Atheist?1 min
  21. How to Be Rational About Rationality1 min
  22. The Logic of Risk Taking2 min
  23. Epilogue: What Lindy Told Me1 min

Recommended by

  • Matthew SyedWriter for The Times
    A great iconoclast. . . Taleb, a Wall Street trader turned essayist, is a thinker touched by genius. . . The big picture he presents is powerfully argued and offers myriad policy implications
  • William LeithWriter for the Evening Standard
    As always with Taleb, this is a fascinating set of ideas. And he's right. People with skin in the game learn how the game works. Without it, they don't

About the author

  • Nassim Nicholas TalebEssayist, former option trader and New York University professor
    • Born 12 September 1960 in Amioun, Lebanon
    • Parents: Nagib Taleb, oncologist and haematologist, and Minerva Ghosn, anthropology researcher
    • The Lebanese Civil War (from 1975) cost his family much of its wealth and political influence
    • Schooled at the Grand LycĂ©e Franco Libanais in Beirut, then university in Paris
    • MBA from Wharton, PhD from the University of Paris
    • Senior trading positions at major banks; ran his own derivatives firm
    • Retired Distinguished Professor, Finance and Risk Engineering, NYU Tandon
    • Relation to topic: 21 years as a risk taker before researching probability; Skin in the Game is the fifth volume of the Incerto

Read it alongside

  • Goes deeperThe Unaccountability Machine

    Nassim Nicholas Taleb argues that those who advise or decide for others should share the harm of their decisions; Dan Davies describes how rules nobody can override cut the link between a decision and its consequences.

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