Written by a veteran Wall Street Journal reporter, this is a fascinating and closely observed chronicle of the storm-chasing edgelords of finance and the critics with whom they clash The New York Times the billion-dollar traders and crisis predictors who strive to turn extreme events into financial windfalls. There is no doubt that our world has gotten more extreme. Pandemics, climate change, superpower rivalries, cyberattacks, political radicalization virtually, Everywhere we look there is mayhem bearing down on us, putting trillions of assets at risk. And at least two factions have formed around how to respond. In Chaos Kings, Scott Patterson depicts how one faction, led by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, bestselling author of The Black Swan, believes humans can never see the big disaster coming. In their view, extreme events so-called Black Swans while inevitable, will always catch us by surprise. In 2007, Taleb longtime collaborator, Mark Spitznagel, launched the Universe hedge fund, which would go on to make billions protecting investors against unforeseen chaos in the market. A second faction, which relies on complex formulas, believes looming chaos can be detected. Chief among these risk prognosticators is Didier Sornette, a colorful French mathematician who enjoys riding his motorcycle at speeds in excess of 170 miles per hour. When Sornette looks out from