Skin in the Game
Thoughts on acquiring skin in the game whilst pilgrimaging across China
Welcome back to the arena, folks. Today, we will be replicating Noah Smith’s strategy and setting a timer for 30 minutes. By the end of this, a post will either be published or set sail for the garbage bin.
There’s a great book called Skin in the Game by Nassim Taleb. The core thesis of the book is that to accomplish anything worth doing, you need to take risks and subsequently be responsible for your own actions. He posits that folks in academia or politicians are often abstracted so far away from everyday life that they don’t know what is really happening.
Instead of talking about policy behind closed doors, go to the town square and debate. Instead of conducting research studies about the optimal solution for homelessness from your armchair, go visit the folks living on the streets.
This book has profoundly impacted the way I think about most things. For example, about 18 months ago, I considered myself productive for reading highly intellectual books or diving deep into pharmaceutical manufacturing; however, I realized postpartum that I didn’t actually do anything with this knowledge. It went in one ear and out the other.
It’s incredibly easy to fall into the trap of fake productivity. It’s something I struggle with on a day-to-day basis. Watching educational YouTube videos. Reading Substack blogs. Harvesting alpha from Twitter. Posting content on LinkedIn. Trying to gain influence on Twitter. Even writing this Substack post. I think many of these things are beneficial and can correlate with real skin in the game; however, the fallacy I (and others) have identified is that one should do the real work before posting about it. Your content should come from the fruits of your labor, not be your labor.
It feels good to post about reindustrializing the US. It feels good to criticize American companies for their overreliance on China. It feels good to think of strategies to help manufacture things domestically. It feels good to visit China and learn from the best in the world. But at what point is it time to stop learning and to start doing? I will be in China for 50 more days exploring factory floors, port cities, and infrastructure. However, if I don’t do anything real with this, what even is the point? I’d like to build a hardware/manufacturing business and am thinking deeply about what the next steps will be.. but I’m wrestling with the thought that every waking hour spent in a hotel room, museum, factory, or plane, I could be building real things.
One of the crazy thoughts I had when planning this pilgrimage to China was whether it was possible to manufacture a real product in China. Even if this venture is not pursued in the long run, this is still a form of real skin-in-the-game. Real problems will be solved, risks will be taken, and bank accounts will be drained. Perhaps a few haters can be acquired for motivation.
Over the coming months, I will continue letting go of my fear to post my thoughts in public. Why? To receive feedback from the real world… instead of some LLM that agrees with everything one says. This writing isn’t going to win any Pulitzers initially, but the point is to build reps in the arena. I’m in fact writing this very post under a [30-minute] time limit, knowing it will not go out perfectly.
As I continue to travel across China, I will continue to drum up ideas on the best way to take on real risk and accountability. Part of this is discussing these things with friends who will hold one accountable. This follows the same reason to post these thoughts on LinkedIn, Substack, X, etc. It’s easy to twiddle one’s thumbs and cry about problems in the world… but it’s time to shift from a naysayer and an unbeliever to a warrior. It’s time to find the Übermensch.
