Finished reading: On the Edge by Nate Silver 📚 Silver lays out a clear and compelling case for us all to be taking more risks. His framing (gambling, crypto, AI, with a dash of politics) is inevitably going to turn people off, but he gives each subject a fair shake– none of it is universally negative or positive. His conclusions are not far from my own.
But…this book is Exhibit A of what people don’t like about Nate Silver: while I think he’s “right”, his prose is dripping with the fact he knows he’s right. He spends the book showing the divide between two groups–the Riverians and Villagers– with a very clear framing of building up his side (the Riverians). But then in the last three pages of a 500+ page book, he concludes that the members of the two tribes need to stop moving towards the tails of their group. He’s right about this, but I wish he’d spent more time on what a hybrid Riverian/Villager looks like.
Overall, if you can put aside the negatives, this is a vital book– risk is a subject that’s not well understood and Silver clearly shows why this is hurting society.