Well, the degree of risk that someone should take on is debatable. The point of the article was - as I understand it - that we should be suspicious of people wh

Well, the degree of risk that someone should take on is debatable. The point of the article was - as I understand it - that we should be suspicious of people who just won't put their money where their mouth is: "The skin in the game heuristic is best viewed as a rule of thumb that places a pragmatic constraint on normative theories. Whatever the best moral theory (consequentialism, deontology, contractualism, virtue ethics, particularism etc.) or political ideology (socialism, capitalism, libertarianism) might be, the 'rule' tells us that we should be suspicious of people who appeal to it to justify actions that pass the cost of any risk-taking to another party whilst keeping the benefits for themselves." Designers who wouldn't drive a car they designed. Doctors who wouldn't get treated in their own hospitals. That sort of thing. The problem, to my mind, is how you'd motivate that sort of risk taking for people who are more powerful than those they're advising, or have different goals, or are in positions where they can't prove that they've skin in the game. I think most of us would, as a matter of course, get people to put their money where their mouth is if we could practically pin people down to it on a day to day basis. But, in reality, I might not choose to be treated in the hospital I work at because I can afford better care, or because I think some of the people there have it in for me, even if I'm an excellent doctor. I might not choose to drive a car I designed because I can afford a better one, or have different tastes. etc etc. And that's even in the case that I can show that I've skin in the game. I've worked jobs before where having any interests in the problem that might tempt you to fudge the results was grounds for not being employed. It's very difficult to apply such a heuristic when I'm not necessarily playing the same game as you for the same prizes.