There is always an element of fools of randomness and crooks of randomness in matters of uncertainty; one has a lack of understanding, the second has warped incentives. One, the fool, takes risks he doesn’t understand, mistaking his own past luck for skills, the other, the crook, transfers risks to others. There is another point: we may not know beforehand if an action is foolish—but reality knows.

Crook, Fool, or Both

How much you truly “believe” in something can be manifested only through what you are willing to risk for it.

Not everything that happens happens for a reason, but everything that survives survives for a reason.

Madness is rare in individuals, but in groups, parties, nations, it is the rule.- Nietzsche

Madness of crowds

In Canada, when we say bilingual, it is English- speaking, and when we say French-speaking it becomes bilingual.

The curse of modernity is that we are increasingly populated by a class of people who are better at explaining than understanding,or better at explaining than doing.

The curse of modernity

The Romans judged their political system by asking not whether it made sense but whether it worked.

Doing things in the real world, in some professions (such as medicine), bears the name clinical, which is not deemed to be scientific. Many disciplines lack this third dimension, the clinical one.

Many kids would learn to love mathematics if they had some investment in it, and, more crucially, they would build an instinct to spot its misapplications.

I Am Dumb Without Skin in the Game

There is this illusion that just as businessmen are motivated and rewarded by profits, scientists should be motivated and rewarded by honors and recognition. That’s not how it works. Remember, science is a minority rule: a few will run it, others are just back-office clerks.

You cannot steal "a little bit" or murder "moderately" — just as you cannot keep kosher and eat "just a little bit" of pork on Sunday barbecues.

Stability of the Minority Rule, a probabilistic argument

Hammurabi’s best-known injunction is as follows: "If a builder builds a house and the house collapses and causes the death of the owner of the house—the builder shall be put to death."

From Hammurabi to Kant

You do not want to win an argument. You want to win. Indeed you need to win whatever you are after: money, territory, the heart of a grammar specialist, or a (pink) convertible car. For focusing just on words puts one on a very dangerous slope, since We are much better at doing than understanding.

Fat Tony’s motto

Don't give crap, don't take crap.More practical approach is:Start by being nice to every person you meet. But if someone tries to exercise power over you, excercise power over him.

From Kant to Fat Tony

People who are not morally independent tend to fit ethics to their profession (with a minimum of spinning), rather than find a profession that fits their ethics.

Soul in the game

Sometimes I would offer something for sale for, say, $5, but communicated with the client through a salesperson, and the salesperson would come back with an "improvement", of $5.10.Something never felt right about the extra ten cents.It was, simply, not a sustainable way of doing business. What if the customer subsequently discovered that my initial offer was $5?No compensation is worth the feeling of shame.

Feeling of shame

Studying courage in textbooks doesn’t make you any more courageous than eating cow meat makes you bovine.By some mysterious mental mechanism, people fail to realize that the principal thing you can learn from a professor is how to be a professor—and the chief thing you can learn from, say, a life coach or inspirational speaker is how to become a life coach or inspirational speaker.

Heroes Were Not Library Rats

The Golden Rule wants you to Treat others the way you would like them to treat you.The more robust Silver Rule says Do not treat others the way you would not like them to treat you.

Silver Beats Gold

<ol><li>artisans do things for existential reasons first, financial and commercial ones later. Their decision making is never fully financial, but it remains financial.</li><li>they have some type of “art” in their profession; they stay away from most aspects of industrialization; they combine art and business.</li><li>they put some soul in their work: they would not sell something defective or even of compromised quality because it hurts their pride.</li></ol>

Artisans have their soul in the game

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has

Men feel the good less intensely than the bad.(A psychological theory by which a loss is more painful than a gain is pleasant.)

Loss aversion

Courage (risk taking) is the highest virtue.We need entrepreneurs.

Anything that smacks of competition destroys knowledge.

Use laws that are old but food that is fresh

From the bestselling author of The Black Swan, a bold book that challenges many of our long-held beliefs about risk and reward, politics and religion, finance and personal responsibility 'Skin in the game means that you do not pay attention to what people say, only to what they do, and how much of their neck they are putting on the line' Citizens, artisans, police, fishermen, political activists and entrepreneurs all have skin in the game. Policy wonks, corporate executives, many academics, bankers and most journalists don't. It's all about having something to lose and sharing risks with others. In his most provocative and practical book yet, Nassim Nicholas Taleb shows that skin in the game, often seen as the foundation of risk management, in fact applies to all aspects of our lives. In his inimitable style, Taleb draws on everything from Antaeus the Giant to Hammurabi to Donald Trump, from ethics to used car salesmen, to create a jaw-dropping framework for understanding this idea. Among his insights: For social justice, focus on symmetry and risk sharing. Minorities, not majorities, run the world. You can be an intellectual yet still be an idiot. Beware of complicated solutions (that someone was paid to find). Just as The Black Swan did during the 2007 financial crisis, Skin in the Game comes at precisely the right moment to challenge our long-held beliefs about risk, reward, politics, religion and business - and make us rethink everything we thought we knew.

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Personal Development

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Books

From the bestselling author of The Black Swan, a bold book that challenges many of our long-held beliefs about risk and reward, politics and religion, finance and personal responsibility 'Skin in the game means that you do not pay attention to what people say, only to what they do, and how much of their neck they are putting on the line' Citizens, artisans, police, fishermen, political activists and entrepreneurs all have skin in the game. Policy wonks, corporate executives, many academics, bankers and most journalists don't. It's all about having something to lose and sharing risks with others. In his most provocative and practical book yet, Nassim Nicholas Taleb shows that skin in the game, often seen as the foundation of risk management, in fact applies to all aspects of our lives. In his inimitable style, Taleb draws on everything from Antaeus the Giant to Hammurabi to Donald Trump, from ethics to used car salesmen, to create a jaw-dropping framework for understanding this idea. Among his insights: For social justice, focus on symmetry and risk sharing. Minorities, not majorities, run the world. You can be an intellectual yet still be an idiot. Beware of complicated solutions (that someone was paid to find). Just as The Black Swan did during the 2007 financial crisis, Skin in the Game comes at precisely the right moment to challenge our long-held beliefs about risk, reward, politics, religion and business - and make us rethink everything we thought we knew.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb is an accomplished writer whose work has resonated with readers around the world. Nassim Nicholas Taleb has published several books that explore a range of topics, from fiction to nonfiction, and has received critical acclaim for the ability to weave compelling narratives. Nassim Nicholas Taleb's writing style is known for its depth and authenticity, and has earned quite a loyal following of readers.

NASSIM NICHOLAS TALEB

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