On the Edge: The Art of Risking Everything

I seem to be an early reader of this, and notably an early reader with a strongly negative opinion, so I feel compelled to write a review for it.I'm an engineer, and by nature I tend to like numerical approaches to problems, thinking probabilistically, and priding myself on feeling ‘rational' about how I view situations. I've followed Nate Silver in one way or another for years, and generally remember enjoying [b:The Signal and the Noise 13588394 The Signal and the Noise Why So Many Predictions Fail—But Some Don't Nate Silver https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1355058876l/13588394.SY75.jpg 19175796]. I saw that Silver had written this book, had a spare Audible credit, and picked it up quickly.It's not good.As other (even positive) reviews have stated, there isn't a strong sense of a theme throughout the book. The closest I could discern is that Nate Silver knows notable people and isn't afraid to name-drop, and that some elites of the world think about things in a Super Special Numerical way and that's what makes them elite. But lest you worry he thinks too highly of the elites, he occasionally tosses in examples of valid criticism from the rest of society. And don't worry, he alone is uniquely qualified to have a foot in both that elite circle (telling stories of parties and exclusive interviews he's had) and still rub shoulders with the rest of us. Perhaps in an effort to not spurn his Silicon Valley friends, he also comes across as strangely uncritical of figures like Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and Sam Bankman-Fried, among others. These are people you can't ‘both sides' your way around, or hedge an opinion towards, and it feels weaselly that he does.[As a total aside for audiobook listeners: Silver does his own narration for this performance, and it is actively bad. Most punctuation is treated as a paragraph stop, to the extent that the latter halves of many sentences are confusing as sometimes I couldn't tell if it was a new paragraph or not. He also tries to imitate the voices of some people he references, notably Steve Wynn and Peter Thiel, in a way that I can only imagine is incredibly insulting to them. It was such a bad narration that I genuinely questioned his decision-making in other elements of the publishing process. You've been warned.]I wouldn't in good conscience recommend this book to anyone, I certainly doubt I learned anything from it, and it's turned me off of paying attention to Silver's future endeavours. If you want to learn more about FTX I'd recommend [b:Number Go Up 123276708 Number Go Up Inside Crypto's Wild Rise and Staggering Fall Zeke Faux https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1687140968l/123276708.SY75.jpg 145311112], and if you want a better take on some of the concepts Silver covers in the book I'd recommend [b:Rationality 56224080 Rationality Steven Pinker https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1618510588l/56224080.SY75.jpg 87575630] or [b:Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World 41795733 Range Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World David Epstein https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1550048292l/41795733.SY75.jpg 65183769].