Skin In The Game | Nassim Nicholas Taleb

In Skin In The Game, Nassim Nicholas Taleb explains how the willingness of accepting one’s own risks is an important quality of heroes, saints and successful people in all walks of life. 

Skin In The Game is about the distortions of symmetry and reciprocity in life. If you have the rewards, you must also get some of the risks and not let others pay the price of your mistakes.

Here are my highlights from the book:

If you have the rewards, you must also get some of the risks, not let others pay the price of your mistakes. If you inflict risk on others, and they are harmed, you need to pay some price for it.

Don’t tell me what you “think,” just tell me what’s in your portfolio.

The golden rule wants you to treat others the way you would like them to treat you.

Yogi Berra (dynamic rule for symmetric relations): “I go to other people’s funerals so they come to mine.”

Isocrates: “Conduct yourself toward your parents as you would have your children conduct themselves toward you.”

His more practical approach is start by being nice to every person you meet. But if someone tries to exercise power over you, exercise power over him.

I personally know rich horrible forecasters and poor “good” forecasters. Because what matters in life isn’t how frequently one is “right” about outcomes, but how much one makes when one is right.

Those who talk should do and only those who do should talk

Simply: if you can’t put your soul into something, give it up and leave that stuff to someone else.

Being alive means taking certain risks.

Laws come and go; ethics stay.

Nietzsche got the point: Sympathy for all would be tyranny for thee, my good neighbor.

A kosher (or halal) eater will never eat nonkosher (or nonhalal) food, but a nonkosher eater isn’t banned from eating kosher.

A disabled person will not use the regular bathroom, but a nondisabled person will use the bathroom for disabled people.