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Risk & ruin

Skin in the Game

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Never trust advice from someone who doesn't share your downside - asymmetry, accountability and avoiding ruin decide who survives.

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Chapters

14
  1. Chapter 01The Symmetry of RiskAnyone who makes a decision that can hurt you should share the pain if they are wrong.Read this chapter →
  2. Chapter 02Why Each One Should Eat His Own TurtlesIf you sell it or recommend it, you should be willing to own its risk yourself.Read this chapter →
  3. Chapter 03The Most Intolerant WinsA small, stubborn minority that refuses to compromise can bend the whole crowd to its choice.Read this chapter →
  4. Chapter 04How to Legally Own a PersonPeople behave reliably only when they have something real to lose from misbehaving.Read this chapter →
  5. Chapter 05The Skin of Others in Your GameBeware people who take the rewards while others carry the losses.Read this chapter →
  6. Chapter 06The Intellectual Yet IdiotBeware confident, credentialed experts who never personally pay for being wrong.Read this chapter →
  7. Chapter 07An Expert Called LindyFor ideas, books and tools, the longer something has already lasted, the longer it is likely to last.Read this chapter →
  8. Chapter 08Surgeons Should Not Look Like SurgeonsPick the doer who succeeds despite not looking the part over the one who merely looks impressive.Read this chapter →
  9. Chapter 09Only the Rich Are PoisonedWhat people actually choose with real stakes tells you more than what they say they want.Read this chapter →
  10. Chapter 10Facta non Verba: Deeds Before WordsBelieve what people and companies do, not what they announce.Read this chapter →
  11. Chapter 11The Facts Are True, the News Is FakeThe individual facts can be true while the overall story the news builds from them misleads.Read this chapter →
  12. Chapter 12The Merchandising of VirtueTalk is cheap; genuine virtue costs the person something.Read this chapter →
  13. Chapter 13How to Be Rational About RiskRationality is not clever reasoning; it is whatever keeps you surviving to play again.Read this chapter →
  14. Chapter 14What Lindy Told Me: Via NegativaWisdom is mostly removing what is harmful and fragile, not adding more.Read this chapter →

This is my own plain-English understanding of the book’s ideas, in my own words with my own ₹ examples, laid out against the book’s real chapters so you can relate the two. It is not the book and reproduces none of its text - if it helps, please buy the book. Not affiliated with the author or publisher. The author is not SEBI-registered; nothing here is investment advice.