On The Edge

This book is a great read, I really enjoyed the vast majority of it. It depicts two factions of society, what is nice is that they are not separated by political leanings, although the 'Village' skews heavily left. The River on the other hand is less dogmatic, more rational minded, by that I mean more likely to search for convincing logic or facts to support each position. The River is of course different in other ways. I'd like to review a bit more the three sections of the River to see their differences a little more.

Anyway, I guess the one thing lacking here is a good narrative thread throughout the book, it feels a bit more like a collection of case studies of River occupants that could each be read entirely independent of one another, rather than each building upon the other. Though I suppose it's possible one can see a building of risk taking as we travel down the River, the upper occupants essentially gamble with their own lives and finances, then SBF is gambling a multi-billion dollar business, and finally the A.I. firms are gambling with humanity's existence. I guess, but I see SBF as being more risk taking than A.I. firms, who, possibly just do not recognise the risk, that than see it and think it worth it.

Overall, well worth reading.

Nate Silver shifts from prediction to betting and risk taking. I really liked this book, the anecdotal stories serve well to illustrate his broader points. The book is well structured and connects the dots between gambling as a hobby or a game and risk taking as an important part of every day life and society at large.