A Review Of Skin in the Game, by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Here is a book review of Skin in the Game, by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, or at least, a few comments about my impressions of it so far…
Books
The Daily Stoic: “You Don’t Have To Stay On Top Of Everything”
In his book, The Daily Stoic Ryan Holiday quotes Epictetus’ Enchiridion 13a for the January 30th reading. In Enchiridion 13a, Epictetus writes, If you wish to improve, be content to appear clueless or stupid in extraneous matters – don’t wish to seem knowledgeable. And if some regard you as important, [Read more…]
Machiavelli Summed Up in 56 Well-Chosen Words
I am reading Then and Now by Somerset Maugham. On the first page Maugham deftly sums up Machiavelli’s thought in 56 well-chosen words: Machiavelli cherished the conviction that men are always the same and have the same passions, so that when circumstances are similar the same causes must lead to [Read more…]
Princes In The Tower, King Under The Car Park
Towards the end of The Princes in the Tower Alison Weir, writing in the early 1990s, describes Richard’s burial and the subsequent fate – as was supposed – of his bones. It is interesting to note that The Great Chronicle seems to describe the circumstances of the burial quite accurately. [Read more…]
G. R. Elton’s Conclusion To England Under The Tudors
I have just finished reading the Folio edition of England Under the Tudors, by G. R. Elton. Here is his conclusion: “A country once ravaged by internal war and depression was now, despite external war and more depression, on the way to becoming a major power. Peace at home had [Read more…]
Kindle Review: 21 Checkmate Puzzles
I was contacted towards the end of November by an amateur chess player called Oliver Dyar, who was responding to my Kindle Books and Chess blog post. He’d just published a short book on Kindle called 21 Checkmate Puzzles which was available for free download for one day only, on [Read more…]
Kindle Chess Books Among Other Things
I have been working with a couple of Kindle chess books recently. Back in the summer I had accumulated enough “Member Rewards Points” on the Tripleclicks website to reward myself with a free Kindle Touch with the intention taking it with me on our summer holiday. For some reason, however, [Read more…]
Readings From Gibbon: The Death Of Jovian & Elevation Of Valentinian
Jovian, the successor of Julian, was a short-lived and inglorious emperor who reestablished Christianity and exchanged land for peace (when decisive action may have saved the army without the need for a treaty). Jovian withdrew from the five Roman provinces east of the Tigris, which had been conquered by Galerius [Read more…]
Zen & The Art Of Pyrrhonian Scepticism: Sarah Bakewell On Montaigne
In a previous blog post I sought to explain how Michel de Montaigne‘s Pyrrhonian scepticism, far from being indicative of “atheism”, was in fact a mark of his orthodoxy. I have just noticed an article in the Guardian by Sarah Bakewell which argues a similar point. Bakewell writes: Montaigne was [Read more…]