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Nassim Nicholas Taleb: Skin in the Game (2018, Penguin Books, Limited) 4 stars

Review of 'Skin in the Game' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

One of Taleb’s characteristics, that I admire, is his brutal honesty. I, therefore, believe that is is only fair to treat him the same. I didn’t like the book. It’s not only that he repeats things that he has written in his Incerto books, and especially in Antifragility (in my humble opinion, his best book), or in his various articles in the past few years. The book lucks structure, it is mostly thoughts put on paper randomly. I didn't particularly enjoy Taleb's overpowering arrogance and contempt towards others. The book is a wild rant towards almost everybody, including politicians, consultants, managers with suits (not sure about those not wearing suits), professors, even architects.

The most interesting part of the book is the chapter about Ergodicity. If you haven’t got the book you can read about it on Medium.

Taleb, when asked why he didn't wear a tie, he replied. “one part arrogance, one part aesthetics, one part convenience.” Following his example I would say that Skin in the Game is, one part probability and risk management, one part amusing personal anecdotes, one part bullshit.