I chuckled my way through this. Giggling, even, like a schoolgirl, happy to have her vain musings verified by an idol.

Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life

I first read Skin in the Game during a lazy few weeks in Costa Rica seven years ago. I was not yet a psychopathic Bitcoiner (#1415070), though extremely frustrated by what was then peak ESG, aka faux environmental worries; very annoyed by the empty, foolish, uneducated, vapid ideas among the intelligentsia left and right; very distraught by the decade-long zero-interest monetary policy most central banks had run and the hopelessness of the monetary situation (fiat, gold, bitcoin) -- and kept all my savings in bitcoin, permissioned gold vaults and tech stocks.  

Taleb arrived as a fresh wind for me, as smooth and comforting as the Pacific one over sandy CR beaches.

Reading Skin in the Game now, a million miles away in time and place, in public in a small village at the edge of the world, three different people(!) came by to comment on it...oh, that's a great book; he's a cool dude.

He was, and I maintain he still is, his backtracking on Bitcoin and his asinine COVID stance aside.

With plenty more sarcasm in my body than in 2019, lots more hatred for the cognitively deficient classes of pathetic humans out there (#1535043), oh lord, am I having a good time.  

Reading it basically gives me license to unleash uncontrollable Den snark. Fucking morons.

Here's what I put it to use for in the latest Nordic Node: #1540813

Having said that, our correspondent seems... jaded. Subtly angry. Spent. Like an old grandpa — though vigorous and very competent —  sick to his stomach of all the nonsense gadgets the youngsters have, all the valid ideas they spout. You know nothing!

Nassim Nicholas Taleb (#1533284) is a strange creature: prolific and arrogant -- a character flaw that is permissible when backed up by competence.

We learn about the ways in which statistics goes wrong, how to think about life and life expectancy, your survival trumping everything else. So many ways of thinking, the minds of the plebs being totally fucked.

This bit had me siiiigh loudly in satisfaction. Yes, I'm happy to see it because I believe it (confirming your beliefs is powerful; feels good) but also it's so poignantly and perfectly said.

We all know (fake) people like that; their opinions — muddled lala for ideas — can be readily discarded

THIS one had me laugh uncontrollably, until someone at the café asked if I was alright

"No peace proceeds from bureaucratic ink. If you want peace, make people trade, as they have done for millennia. They will be eventually forced to work something out.
We are largely collaborative —except when institutions get in the way. I surmise that if we put those 'people wanting to help' in the State Department on paid vacation to do ceramics, pottery, or whatever low-testosterone people do when they take a sabbatical, it would be great for peace." (p. 191)

“If you do not take risks for your opinion, you are nothing”“If you do not take risks for your opinion, you are nothing”

Also: Sartorial irreverence and why I curse liberally

"cursing today is a status symbol, just as oligarchs in Moscow wear blue jeans at special events to signal their power." (105)

Policing your speech (dare I say censoring?! #1520959) is a sign of a lesser intellect and breaching that norm displays loudly and to everyone that you are not owned by anyone.

Also, if I have to wear a suit or a tie, it's a BAD DAY: (p 167)

We all know exactly this character, and it's unnerving how cognitively deficient they are.

I usually say that the most important thing I learnt at Oxford was that you can have a PhD and still be an idiot.

Taleb has that same notion, much more poignant and eloquent than I ever could be. HIGHLY RECOMMEND.