Lockmann.org

Originally published by The New Yorker in 2002 – this Malcolm Gladwell article on Nassim Taleb and Victor Niederhoffer is still a decent read. Specially when it highlights Daniel Kahneman’s influence on Taleb and the complex music/volatility conundrum (“Mahler is not good for volatility,”).  and this final paragraph is harrowing:

“This kind of caution does not seem heroic, of course. It seems like the joyless prudence of the accountant and the Sunday-school teacher. The truth is that we are drawn to the Niederhoffers of this world because we are all, at heart, like Niederhoffer: we associate the willingness to risk great failure — and the ability to climb back from catastrophe–with courage. But in this we are wrong. That is the lesson of Taleb and Niederhoffer, and also the lesson of our volatile times. There is more courage and heroism in defying the human impulse, in taking the purposeful and painful steps to prepare for the unimaginable.”