MARCH BOOK OF THE MONTH ANNOUNCEMENT

it's exciting

Big Nerds March book of the month is written by a master of risk. This is the third book of his that I’ve read and since reading it, I see it everywhere. It’s changed the models I fit the world into. I haven’t seen many other people talk about the way risk-management affects everything we do in life in quite the way he has.

I chose this book because of the “idea density”, which is my guiding metric when picking books. If I get to write 30 short pieces about a book, I’d like it to have way more than just 30 ideas between the covers.

On top of that, I love the way the author writes. Some people hate it. That’s what makes it so enjoyable to read! He writes with some serious attitude. He calls out academics, bankers, consultants and especially economists with no mercy. Whether you agree or not, it’s entertaining to read.

“Skin In The Game, Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life” by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, opened my eyes to patterns of life I had never noticed before.

I hope you guys enjoy this book as much as I have!

Here are some of my favorite one-liners as a teaser:

“Decentralization is based on the simple notion that it is easier to macrobull***t than microbull***t” (Taleb, 12)

“You can define a free person precisely as someone whose fate is not centrally or directly dependent on peer assessment” (Taleb, 144)

“There is no such thing as ‘rationality’ of a belief, there is rationality of action” (Taleb, 216)

Your Biggest Fan,

Noah “BigNerd” Sochaczevski

PS. If you’ve enjoyed being a Big Nerd and you wanted to share with a friend, now’s a good time. We start the prologue on Saturday :)

PPS. I know most Nerds don’t follow along with their own books. That’s great - I write with that in mind! This is one of the easier, denser reads we’ve had. So if you were on the edge about trying to follow along, this is a good opportunity to do that.