Nassim Nicholas Taleb has traded options for more than 20 years, either for major investment banks or on his own as a fund manager and pit trader — but he bristles at being labeled a trader. Taleb describes himself as a philosopher who argues that traders underestimate the role of randomness, and fund managers’ successful track records might be more easily explained by luck than skill or experience. Nassim Nicholas Taleb spent 21 years as a risk taker (quantitative trader) before becoming a researcher in philosophical, mathematical and (mostly) practical problems with probability. Taleb is the author of a multivolume essay, the Incerto (The Black Swan, Fooled by Randomness, Antifragile, and Skin in the Game) covering broad facets of uncertainty. American essayist, scholar and former trader Nassim Nicholas Taleb, whose work focuses on problems of randomness, probability, and uncertainty, discusses his latest book "Skin in the Game".