On the Edge

In The Signal and the Noise, Nate Silver showed how forecasting would define the age of Big Data. Now, in his timely new book, Silver investigates 'the River', or those whose mastery of risk allows them to shape, and dominate, so much of modern life.The River is Silver's term for professional risk takers - poker players and hedge fund managers, crypto true-believers and blue-chip art collectors - and in On the Edge, he reveals what we can learn about navigating uncertainty from those who do so for a living. Whether we like it or not, The River has increasing amounts of wealth and power in our society, and understanding their mindset - including the flaws in their thinking - is key to understanding what drives technology and the global economy today. By embedding within these worlds, Silver offers insight into a range of issues that affect us all, from the COVID-19 pandemic to the future of AI, to the nature of capitalism.Taking us behind the scenes from casinos to hedge funds to art fairs, On the Edge is a deeply reported, all-access journey into a hidden world of movers and shakers.