Taleb's Three Layers of "Skin in the Game"

The best-selling writer Nassim Nicholas Taleb is from what he calls "the Levant." That is, I suppose, to remind us that the coast of the Eastern Mediterranean has been a sophisticated trading culture since whenever. Those were the days when Beirut was considered the Paris of the Levant. Alas, no more and so the refugees from the Levant are all over. There is Taleb in New York, and there is Mexican cellphone magnate and New York Times owner Carlos Slim. And many more.

Taleb worked for 23 years as a financial trader, and made the big time with his book The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable. The idea was that every now and again a big event occurs that wipes out everyone's expectations. We all expect minor changes in the world, but from time to time a tidal wave obliterates everything. So, he argued, you need to keep that Black Swan event in mind. What would happen to your life and your fortune -- never mind your sacred honor -- if the unexpected happened?

Now he has written Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life, the notion that you can't trust people that don't have skin in the game. But tucked away in the book is a three layer table on page 47 labeled "Appendix: Asymmetries in Life and Things." Three Layers? That's where I live.

Taleb's first layer is "No Skin in the Game," meaning the guy that "keeps upside, transfers downside to others, owns a hidden option at someone else's expense."  This includes bureaucrats, consultants, large corporations, scientists "who play the system," centralized government, politicians, bankers. In other words we are talking about a person that

Seeks awards, prizes, honors, ceremonies, medals, tea with the Queen of England, membership in academies, handshake with Obama.

The second layer is "Skin in the Game," meaning the guy that "keeps his own downside, takes his or her own risk." this includes citizens, merchants, businessmen, artisans, laboratory and field experimenters, governments of city states, writers, speculators, activists, hedge fund traders.

The third layer is "Skin in the Game of Others, or Soul in the Game," meaning the guy that "takes the downside on behalf of others, or for universal values," This includes saints, knights, warriors, soldiers, prophets, philosophers (old-time), artists, innovators, maverick scientists, municipal government, "journalists who take risks and expose frauds," activists, dissidents and revolutionaries. in other words the kind of person for whom

Highest -- even only -- award is death for one's ideas or positions: Socrates, Jesus, Saint Catherine, Hypatia, Joan of Arc.

 Of course this is quite a bit different from my reductive Three Peoples theory -- with its Subordinates, Responsibles, and Creatives -- and Curtis Yarvin's Three Layers, with its Clients, Commoners, and Gentry. That's because all three layers of Taleb's Asymmetries refer to my Creative class or Yarvin's Gentry layer.

Still, you can see that the No Skinners are rather like my Subordinates, especially when you read Taleb basically calling them suck-ups, wanting tea with the Queen, etc. And the regular Skin in the Gamers are like my Responsibles: they don't expect other people to pick up their garbage. The highest and best layer, the Soul in the Gamers, are clearly like the Jungian ideal of the Sacrificial Hero, who gives his life that others may live.

Actually, I'd say that Taleb makes an important point:. In every sector of society, from high to low, there are Subordinate Clients who expect to live without having to suck it in on the downside; there are Responsible Commoners, that willingly take the risk of caring for them and theirs; and there are the Creative Heroes, that put their life on the line that others may live.

One thing I would add, because of my notion of Activism Culture. There are a lot of fake Sacrificial Heroes out there. That is why I say that activists are "play-acting revolution." They know that the activist that gives his life for others is the highest kind of person. But if you play-act the Sacrificial Hero then you ain't.