A Mysterious Mental Mechanism That Hinders Learning | Skin in the Game

I couldn't be happier reading any other book at this moment. Skin in the Game is just so relevant to every walk of life, every profession and every circumstance.

Since I started reading the book a few days ago, I've noticed the ideas of Skin in the Game coming to life in just about every way imaginable.

Some examples?

1. I pulled up to a stoplight yesterday and saw someone turning left as I was turning right - part of what helps me make my decision to turn right (as I have the obligation to yield to oncoming traffic from the left) is the person turning left at the same moment: because they are turning left, they have skin in the game, their own life is on the line as they decide to make their left turn because there is a gap in oncoming traffic
2. I was at the gym and I saw personal trainers and thought about their skin in the game: they have skin in the game because they show up to the gym each and every day in person. If they have a bad relationship with a client that is a member to the gym, then they are likely to see that person all the time and thus, they will be uncomfortable and potentially unprofessional

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Learn From People Who Have Skin in the Game

“By some mysterious mental mechanism, people fail to realize that the principal thing you can learn from a professor is how to be a professor—and the chief thing you can learn from, say, a life coach or inspirational speaker is how to become a life coach or inspirational speaker. So remember that the heroes of history were not classicists and library rats, those people who live vicariously in their texts. They were people of deeds and had to be endowed with the spirit of risk taking. To get into their psyches, you will need someone other than a career professor teaching stoicism. They almost always don’t get it (actually, they never get it).”

-Nassim Nicholas Taleb. “Skin in the Game.”

I read this passage earlier today and loved it.

There are so many charlatans all over the internet. So many people who claim to know what they are talking about and show you their Ferarri and Lambo and talk about how they can teach you to get rich..

All you have to do is pay them $2,000 to join their masterclass.

When you dig deep into this person's life, what do you often find more often than not? You often find that they have never actually done anything of significance in their life. You find that the way that they actually got that Lambo was by selling their bullshit course for $2,000. They are scam artists.

When I was in school, I would look at professors the same way. Even at a young age. It got me into a lot of trouble, but I would question the teachers and ask them:

"What have you actually done in life? You're teaching economics or you're teaching us how to write, but have you actually been in the world of finance and made anything of yourself? Have you ever written a book or published any decent papers of significance?"

Now, I'm not saying to go around and make people feel bad about their life and their accomplishments. I'm merely saying that you ought to be aware of the flaws of trying to learn how to do something from someone who's only ever read or theorized about doing that thing.

If you want to learn how to trade or make money, then learn from someone who's been a trader and who's been provably successful over the long-term at the skillset.

Same goes for any profession or industry or skill.. Always seek the people who do, not the people who talk about what you should do.