The mathematician who cracked Wall Street | Jim Simons
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN cites it as a view of Simons as a humble, pragmatic person, with the caveat that the host's questions are weak.
What it is
A TED interview in which Chris Anderson talks with Jim Simons about his life: code-breaking, math, founding Renaissance Technologies, and his philanthropy in math education and origins-of-life research.
Recommended by 1 HN commenters across 1 different months, 2019 to 2024.
What Hacker News said
Recommends nikofeyn · 2019-06 · on “How to Understand the Universe When You’re Stuck Inside of It”
that interview is really great. i have watched it a few times. i think it makes it clear why simons has been so successful. he doesn't seem to really second guess, just does things, delegates well, and despite being obviously brilliant, he seems to have a very practical and humble mindset. the TED interview ( [this video] ) is also good, despite the host's frequent vapid questions. in that interview, simons elaborates on his funding of origins of life studies and efforts.
Cites bmitc · 2023-02 · on “A Jim Simons Market Mystery – Solved? Not:-)”
It's because James Simons is a serious and actually intelligent person with depth of knowledge, and thus, he is one that doesn't need to opine on random things. He also makes a lot of money in a very secretive way. I'm not sure why anyone expects him to expound in detail on how Renaissance Technologies does it. Simons also spends more money than some governments on very serious and advanced scientific research. I suppose he's rather busy with all his investments and philanthropy. Musk is busy selling himself and filling his unfillable ego. You can see in Simons' TED interview with Chris Anderson how he gets rather annoyed with Chris at times, particularly when Chris mentions Simons' "amazing
Cites fuzztester · 2024-11 · on “Jim Simons: A short story of my life and mathematics (2022)”
I also just started watching this TED video about Simons, in which, interestingly, near the start, he says he was fired by General Maxwell Taylor, when he was at the Institute for Defence Analysis, for writing an article opposing Taylor's views on the Vietnam War. Taylor was in favor of it, and Simons was against it, because he thought it was a "stupid war" (for the US to be engaged in, I guess). [this video] [LINK] The Criticisms section of the Wikipedia article about Taylor is interesting.