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The Edge of Chaos Sandpiles and Crashes: How Systems Tune Themselves to the Brink The last essay left a loose end. Markets can sit near a critical edge where small shocks cascade, but critical points are usually finely tuned, so who keeps a market balanced there? The answer, found in a pile of sand, is that nobody does. Some systems walk to the brink on their own, and that is where their crashes come from. May 31, 2025 · 14 min