They're both lucky, and I'm not a fan of Warren Buffett either. He constantly throws out his "money has no utility to me" as part of his "aww shucks, I'm from N

They're both lucky, and I'm not a fan of Warren Buffett either. He constantly throws out his "money has no utility to me" as part of his "aww shucks, I'm from Nebraska" schtick, which is a slap in the face of the other n-billion people poorer than him, less lucky than him, and to whom money does have utility, as in life or death utility. Jim Simons has mentioned explicitly about how most people underestimate the role of luck in success, and he attributes quite a bit of his success to luck.