On the Edge

On the Edge, Nate Silver

★★★½☆

I really enjoyed Silver’s first book – The Signal and the Noise – which was released after his almost overnight stardom predicting the 2008 and 2012 elections. On the Edge was a fun read, but I feel like this book might have been a bit of a flop without Silver’s fame… And I’m definitely remove half a rating star due to the fact that almost every page had a footnote, drove me nuts!

Goodreads: Silver investigates “The River,” or those whose mastery of risk allows them to shape — and dominate — so much of modern life.

These professional risk takers — poker players and hedge fund managers, crypto true-believers and blue-chip art collectors — can teach us much about navigating the uncertainty of the 21st century. By embedding within these worlds, Silver offers insight into a range of issues that affect us all, from the frontiers of finance to the future of AI.

The River has increasing amounts of wealth and power in our society, and understanding their mindset—including the flaws in their thinking—is key to understanding what drives technology and the global economy today. There are certain commonalities in this otherwise diverse high tolerance for risk; appreciation of uncertainty; affinity for numbers; skill at de-coupling; self-reliance and a distrust of the conventional wisdom. For the River, complexity is baked in, and the work is how to navigate it, without going beyond the pale.

Taking us behind-the-scenes from casinos to venture capital firms to meetings of the effective altruism movement, On the Edge is a deeply-reported, all-access journey into a hidden world of powerbrokers and risk takers.