Skin in the Game: The Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. Nassim is a mathematical statistician, and risk analyst. Today he is a Distinguished Professor of Risk Engineering at New York University.
He is a co-editor-in-chief of the academic journal Risk and Decision Analysis since September 2014. Nassim has also been a practitioner of mathematical finance, a hedge fund manager, and a derivatives trader.
His previous book The Black Swan is via The Sunday Times (London) one of the 12 most influential books since World War II. Simply cannot believe it has been 14 years since I read this book. In addition, it would appear that having The Black Swan under your belt helps keep his messaging here accurate.
He has written a five volume set regarding uncertainty called Incerto. In Skin in the Game, Talib mixes a series of ancient fables and maps them to modern subjects. In the age of iPhones and COVID however, these stories seem out of the ordinary in standing up a fable from 2,500 years ago.
However, attempts to apply Wall Street commissions seems like a phish out of water today. As an example, Robert Rubin, the former US Secretary of the Treasury accepted $120 million in compensation from Citibank as the bank was trading at $0.97/share. Rubin’s position was declaring a ‘Black Swan’ event.
