It is as difficult to sink a business without debt as it is sink a ship without holes.
- Manlobbi
Investment Strategies / Falling Knives
No. of Recommendations: 2
No. of Recommendations: 4
For those unfamiliar with the Simons Foundation “Quanta Magazine”, it’s a great read on many subjects written by experts in a clear, concise, manner that I actually thought I had a basic understanding of String Theory!
It’s free to all.
https://www.quantamagazine.org/about/ciao
No. of Recommendations: 17
In his middle career of investment management (between mathematics and philanthropy) he certainly accomplished what many said was impossible, and crushingly so.
I met him once, and he was very gracious...he seemed able to suffer fools gladly. (not speaking of myself in this particular case)
Jim
Trivia: Wikipedia says the Medallion Fund was named for the various mathematical prize medals he and Mr Ax had won. He told us that in fact it was named for the Fields Medal, which they hadn't won.
No. of Recommendations: 3
“In his middle career of investment management (between mathematics and philanthropy) he certainly accomplished what many said was impossible, and crushingly so.”
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Todays NYT article a nice capsule summary of Jim Simons life,
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/10/business/dealbo...ciao
No. of Recommendations: 25
By fortuitous circumstance I got to know Jim and Marilyn Simons a little bit over the years, and while he was a pill about certain things he was basically a very decent guy who made a ton of money and decided to use most of it to make the world a better place. Everyone knows about his work with STEM, but not so many know about the anesthesia machine for rural clinics that came out of the Nick Simons Foundation, or the charter schools and tutorial programs in East Harlem, or many many other projects that the Simons helped. Fortunately Marilyn Simons, like Ruth Gottesman, is there to carry on, and I suspect she will do something significant as well. She is a wonder.
abromber
No. of Recommendations: 7
Jim Simons secret sauce….
“My algorithm has always been: you get smart people together and you give them a lot of freedom. “
“One has to recognize that luck plays a meaningful role in everyone’s lives. You get born to decent parents in a good part of the world, and you’re way ahead of the game. In my case, I was lucky to collaborate with some very good people when I was doing mathematics. I was also lucky in my choice of partners at Renaissance.”
Sounds a lot like Warren Buffett’s algorithm for success.
https://alchemy.substack.com/p/the-algorithm-behin...ciao
No. of Recommendations: 4
Nice write up, thanks for posting...
"I did a lot of math, I made a lot of money, and I gave almost all of it away. That's the story of my life." Jim Simons
Wonderful story!
No. of Recommendations: 1
