
Skin in the Game
Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life
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Narrated by:
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Joe Ochman
About this listen
Number-one New York Times best seller
A bold work from the author of The Black Swan that challenges many of our long-held beliefs about risk and reward, politics and religion, finance and personal responsibility.
In his most provocative and practical book yet, one of the foremost thinkers of our time redefines what it means to understand the world, succeed in a profession, contribute to a fair and just society, detect nonsense, and influence others. Citing examples ranging from Hammurabi to Seneca, Antaeus the Giant to Donald Trump, Nassim Nicholas Taleb shows how the willingness to accept one's own risks is an essential attribute of heroes, saints, and flourishing people in all walks of life.
As always both accessible and iconoclastic, Taleb challenges long-held beliefs about the values of those who spearhead military interventions, make financial investments, and propagate religious faiths. Among his insights:
- For social justice, focus on symmetry and risk sharing. You cannot make profits and transfer the risks to others, as bankers and large corporations do. You cannot get rich without owning your own risk and paying for your own losses. Forcing skin in the game corrects this asymmetry better than thousands of laws and regulations.
- Ethical rules aren't universal. You're part of a group larger than you, but it's still smaller than humanity in general.
- Minorities, not majorities, run the world. The world is not run by consensus but by stubborn minorities asymmetrically imposing their tastes and ethics on others.
- You can be an intellectual yet still be an idiot. "Educated philistines" have been wrong on everything from Stalinism to Iraq to low carb diets.
- Beware of complicated solutions (that someone was paid to find). A simple barbell can build muscle better than expensive new machines.
- True religion is commitment, not just faith. How much you believe in something is manifested only by what you’re willing to risk for it.
The phrase "skin in the game" is one we have often heard but have rarely stopped to truly dissect. It is the backbone of risk management, but it's also an astonishingly rich worldview that, as Taleb shows in this book, applies to all aspects of our lives. As Taleb says, "The symmetry of skin in the game is a simple rule that's necessary for fairness and justice and the ultimate BS-buster," and "Never trust anyone who doesn't have skin in the game. Without it, fools and crooks will benefit, and their mistakes will never come back to haunt them."
©2018 Nassim Nicholas Taleb (P)2018 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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- Why Volatility Signals Stability and Vice Versa
- By: Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Gregory F. Treverton
- Narrated by: Kevin Stillwell
- Length: 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Instead of trying to predict "Black Swan" events such as coups or crises, forecasters should look at how political systems handle disorder. The best indicator of a country's future trajectory is not a lengthy past stability, but recent moderate volatility.
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Fine Taleb, but repeats some themes in other books
- By Philo on 03-23-15
By: Nassim Nicholas Taleb, and others
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The Basic Laws of Human Stupidity
- By: Carlo M. Cipolla, Nassim Nicholas Taleb - foreword
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Throughout history, a powerful force has hindered the growth of human welfare and happiness. It is more powerful than the Mafia or the military. It has global catastrophic effects and can be found anywhere from the world's most powerful boardrooms to your local bar. It is human stupidity. Carlo M. Cipolla, noted professor of economic history at the UC Berkeley, created this vitally important book in order to detect and neutralize its threat.
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What do you have to loose?
- By Andres on 04-06-21
By: Carlo M. Cipolla, and others
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The Sovereign Individual
- Mastering the Transition to the Information Age
- By: James Dale Davidson, Peter Thiel - preface, William Rees-Mogg
- Narrated by: Michael David Axtell
- Length: 19 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Two renowned investment advisors and authors of the best seller The Great Reckoning bring to light both currents of disaster and the potential for prosperity and renewal in the face of radical changes in human history as we move into the next century. The Sovereign Individual details strategies necessary for adapting financially to the next phase of Western civilization.
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Unfortunately distopian for mosty of humanity
- By Phil on 09-29-20
By: James Dale Davidson, and others
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Antifragile
- Prosperare nel disordine
- By: Nassim Nicholas Taleb
- Narrated by: Nicola Bonimelli
- Length: 18 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Questo audiolibro offre una nuova visione del mondo. La prospettiva che cambierà le nostre idee sulla società e ispirerà le nostre scelte quotidiane. Ci aiuterà a comprendere come il nostro corpo si protegge dalle malattie e le specie viventi si evolvono, come la libertà d'impresa crea prosperità e il genio si trasforma in innovazione.
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Please write Italian version on the title
- By FA on 11-13-21
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Zero to One
- Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future
- By: Peter Thiel, Blake Masters
- Narrated by: Blake Masters
- Length: 4 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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The great secret of our time is that there are still uncharted frontiers to explore and new inventions to create. In Zero to One, legendary entrepreneur and investor Peter Thiel shows how we can find singular ways to create those new things.
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Seems Insightful Until You Think A Little Deeper
- By Mark Brandon on 10-31-14
By: Peter Thiel, and others
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Genome
- The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters
- By: Matt Ridley
- Narrated by: Simon Prebble
- Length: 12 hrs and 20 mins
- Original Recording
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Arguably the most significant scientific discovery of the new century, the mapping of the 23 pairs of chromosomes that make up the human genome raises almost as many questions as it answers - questions that will profoundly impact the way we think about disease, about longevity, and about free will. Questions that will affect the rest of your life. Matt Ridley here probes the scientific, philosophical, and moral issues arising as a result of the mapping of the genome.
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Still useful today.
- By Gary on 05-21-12
By: Matt Ridley
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Skin in the Game
- Everything You Need Is Already Inside You
- By: Jane Wurwand
- Narrated by: Jane Wurwand
- Length: 7 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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Dermalogica founder Jane Wurwand shows you how to turn your unique traits and experiences — especially the ones you may think are your biggest setbacks, into the tools you need to make your dreams a reality.
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Perseverance
- By Lisette Womack on 02-04-25
By: Jane Wurwand
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A Man for All Markets
- From Las Vegas to Wall Street, How I Beat the Dealer and the Market
- By: Edward O. Thorp, Nassim Nicholas Taleb - foreword
- Narrated by: Edward O. Thorp
- Length: 16 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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The incredible true story of the card-counting mathematics professor who taught the world how to beat the dealer and, as the first of the great quantitative investors, ushered in a revolution on Wall Street.
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A life of a genius
- By Oleksiy Volovik on 05-08-17
By: Edward O. Thorp, and others
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Seven Brief Lessons on Physics
- By: Carlo Rovelli
- Narrated by: Carlo Rovelli
- Length: 1 hr and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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This playful, entertaining, and mind-bending introduction to modern physics briskly explains Einstein's general relativity, quantum mechanics, elementary particles, gravity, black holes, the complex architecture of the Universe, and the role humans play in this weird and wonderful world. Carlo Rovelli, a renowned theoretical physicist, is a delightfully poetic and philosophical scientific guide. He takes us to the frontiers of our knowledge: To the most minute reaches of the fabric of space, back to the origins of the cosmos, and into the workings of our minds.
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We are made of the same stardust...
- By Darwin8u on 03-21-16
By: Carlo Rovelli
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As You Think
- By: James Allen
- Narrated by: Mark Allen
- Length: 1 hr and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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In this powerful work, James Allen reveals deep insights into the essential relationship of a person's thoughts to personal character, life circumstances, physical health, life purpose, achievement, and personal serenity.
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Updated Classic from 1904
- By Dianne on 09-26-07
By: James Allen
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Poor Charlie’s Almanack
- The Essential Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger
- By: Charles T. Munger
- Narrated by: Grover Gardener
- Length: 13 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
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"Spend each day trying to be a little wiser than you were when you woke up," Charles T. Munger advises in Poor Charlie’s Almanack. Originally published in 2005, this compendium of 11 talks, delivered by the legendary Berkshire Hathaway vice-chairman between 1986 and 2007, has become a touchstone for a generation of investors and entrepreneurs seeking to absorb the enduring wit and wisdom of one of the great minds of the 20th and 21st centuries.
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Wisdom from grandpa Charlie
- By J R Cavanaugh on 08-18-24
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More Than You Know
- Finding Financial Wisdom in Unconventional Places
- By: Michael J. Mauboussin
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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Since its first publication, Michael J. Mauboussin's popular guide to wise investing has been translated into eight languages and has been named best business book by BusinessWeek and best economics book by Strategy+Business. Now updated to reflect current research and expanded to include new chapters on investment philosophy, psychology, and strategy and science as they pertain to money management.
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Liked it better when it was written by Taleb
- By Ian on 11-24-18
Better off read than heard
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I am not sure why there are so many negative comments, other than perhaps a modern aversion, bordering on cowardice, to strongly argued points. Calling out Thomas Friedman by name for being wrong about almost every major trend in his career - including support for the war in Iraq that ended the lives of the 10000s and helped plunge the middle east into chaos? Heaven forbid we should be so impolite as to suggest that someone of his repute literally has blood on his hands and still parades around in his hubris and ignorance? Meanwhile principled detractors and critics like Chris Hedges are forced out of their jobs and utterly marginalized for speaking the truth from a position of first-hand knowledge and experience.
Nassim Taleb has a particularly salient understanding of the world and does not pull punches. We need more people like him in order to break through the self-serving complacency of our supposed "intellectual" class, which has been leading the U.S. into one military, political and economic disaster after another.
Turn off CNN, put down the NYT and go outside and look around you.
Excellent Work. Not sure why so many detractors.
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Another brilliant book by Taleb!
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Excellent description on what's going on now
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Listening to a bully....
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More about Agency issues than Investing
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Great addition to your worldview
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Perspective Changing Book
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interesting insights
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probably better to read
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