As an introduction to Nate Silver, On The Edge may not be a good place to start. That does not mean it is not a good book. Silver first came to my attention on FiveThirtyEight, the blog about polling, sports, and politics, in partnership with the NYT. He now publishes the Silver Bulletin newsletter (I’m a subscriber). Edge is about taking risks, managing risk, and making decisions under pressure, from the perspective of a professional poker player who analyzes statistics.
Silver sees the world divided into The River (Riverians) and The Village (Villagers), with everything in between. In Edge, we meet professional poker players, crypto investors, sports betters, and billionaires who have lost everything. Risk is part of the lives of these people who accept complexity. The book is thought-provoking to say the least. For me, there was too much time spent on the details of high-stakes poker and sports betting, but others may find that fascinating. On the other hand, the analysis of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange collapse and the interview with Sam Bankman-Fried were worth the price of the book.