Not rich yet? Maybe you need to take bigger risks

NATE Silver’s newly released book On the Edge: The Art of Risking Everything is a provocative exploration of risk-taking in today’s tech and financial markets. Best known for his work as a statistician and founder of data journalism website FiveThirtyEight, he applies his statistical expertise to his love of poker-playing and his observations of risk-takers in Silicon Valley and Wall Street. 

Admittedly, he’s not the most elegant of writers – he uses words such as “degens” (degenerates), “nits” (nitwits) and “a**holes”. But if you can get past the sometimes overly casual writing style, the book offers interesting insights into the aggressive world of tech entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. It also explains why Elon Musk can still draw investors even after several SpaceX rocket explosions, and why Sam Bankman-Fried might still get a job when he gets out of prison.

A leading voice in data-driven journalism

Silver first found fame with his 2012 bestseller The Signal and the Noise, which demonstrated his ability to interpret data and forecast election results with striking accuracy. During the 2008 US presidential election, he predicted the results for 49 of the 50 states. He then predicted the outcomes of the 2012 and 2020 US presidential elections. Infamously, he tripped during the 2016 election when, like so many pundits, he predicted Hilary Clinton would win by a comfortable margin.