Skin in the Game

The Hotpot | March 2026 | By Lisanne

26.3

When do we actually become an expert?

Is it after ten years in the workplace? When we get that one title? Or simply when we decide it ourselves?

Nassim Nicholas Taleb is quite matter-of-fact about it in his book Skin in the Game:

“Knowledge without skin in the game is like a map without a landscape—useless and dangerous. If you don’t take a risk, you don’t truly understand the machine you are operating.”

As he famously puts it:

“Don’t tell me what you think, tell me what you have in your portfolio.”

Source: Skin in the Game by Nassim Taleb.

For Taleb, reality is a merciless teacher; it corrects the “doer” immediately, while the theorist remains safely on the sidelines. It’s the ultimate filter. It separates the pundits from the practitioners.

But his point is more essential than showing off your achievements. When you have skin in the game, the feedback from reality is your true teacher. The “doer” is immediately corrected by reality. If you’re an expert because you do it, reality acts as your mentor. The scars you speak of are actually the physical reminders of lessons you could never have learned from a book.

Perhaps we only truly become an expert the moment we share something the world must respond to.

When we start publishing. The moment we ship. The moment we put our skin in the game and step into the arena.

Thank you for reading! The question of today:

You become an expert the moment you start publishing. The moment you ship. The moment you put your skin in the game and let the world respond.