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I might be naive but it seems unfortunate that so many bright minds end up using their talents to catch trillions of pennies in the financial markets.

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thrdbndndn 2y ago
What you said might be true, but he's like THE outlier of this trope though.
creer 2y ago
He did a few other things also. RenTech didn't even require all his time.
jjtheblunt 2y ago
Your comment just made me wonder if the catching of those trillions of pennies makes the markets more efficient. (Not an economist, and I don't pretend to know.)
- rybosworld 2y ago
  I think the efforts do make the markets more efficient, and it would be hard to argue the opposite. I'm just wondering out loud if that's a meaningful use of such a large percentage of top talent. I'm not faulting anyone who chooses to go that way. There's a lot of money to be made. To me, it seems unfortunate that we don't better incentive pursuit of science/engineering. This paper breaks down how many people from top schools (MIT, Yale, Harvard) get jobs in finance. It's between 20-30% of the graduating class every year. https://www.hbs.edu/ris/Publication%2520Files/16-067_3d306ef8-09a1-42b3-956f-a797846b9e3c.pdf https://www.hbs.edu/ris/Publication%2520Files/16-067_3d306ef...
  - jjtheblunt 2y ago
    I bet it's partially that the money is good, and partially that the puzzles are enticing.
  - smabie 2y ago
    Trading is just like, a lot of fun you know? Atleast that's my primary motivation for it.
paulpauper 2y ago
dumb comment. he did more than that. consider his catching pennies helped others who chose other vocations.
mlsu 2y ago
Don't think about the money. Money flows in one direction, but corporate decisions, organization of resources, manufacturing activity -- real physical flows, energy flows, mass flows -- move opposite. What "finance" really is is improving allocation of those real resources, and then skimming a little bit off of the improvement. Fundamentally, money is a signal for the expenditure of energy. The flow of money, the signal, can be analyzed and applied optimally to improve the expenditure of energy. If the world's production capacity is a giant muscle, finance is like the brain. Spending 20 watts of brainpower to move a 100 watt muscle in the right way can be hugely effective, far more effective than a 1000 watt muscle with 5 watts of brain. This is really what finance does. They improve the movement of the muscle.

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thrdbndndn 2y ago

What you said might be true, but he's like THE outlier of this trope though.

creer 2y ago

He did a few other things also. RenTech didn't even require all his time.

jjtheblunt 2y ago

Your comment just made me wonder if the catching of those trillions of pennies makes the markets more efficient. (Not an economist, and I don't pretend to know.)

rybosworld 2y ago
I think the efforts do make the markets more efficient, and it would be hard to argue the opposite. I'm just wondering out loud if that's a meaningful use of such a large percentage of top talent. I'm not faulting anyone who chooses to go that way. There's a lot of money to be made. To me, it seems unfortunate that we don't better incentive pursuit of science/engineering. This paper breaks down how many people from top schools (MIT, Yale, Harvard) get jobs in finance. It's between 20-30% of the graduating class every year. https://www.hbs.edu/ris/Publication%2520Files/16-067_3d306ef8-09a1-42b3-956f-a797846b9e3c.pdf https://www.hbs.edu/ris/Publication%2520Files/16-067_3d306ef...
- jjtheblunt 2y ago
  I bet it's partially that the money is good, and partially that the puzzles are enticing.
- smabie 2y ago
  Trading is just like, a lot of fun you know? Atleast that's my primary motivation for it.

paulpauper 2y ago

dumb comment. he did more than that. consider his catching pennies helped others who chose other vocations.

mlsu 2y ago

Don't think about the money. Money flows in one direction, but corporate decisions, organization of resources, manufacturing activity -- real physical flows, energy flows, mass flows -- move opposite. What "finance" really is is improving allocation of those real resources, and then skimming a little bit off of the improvement. Fundamentally, money is a signal for the expenditure of energy. The flow of money, the signal, can be analyzed and applied optimally to improve the expenditure of energy. If the world's production capacity is a giant muscle, finance is like the brain. Spending 20 watts of brainpower to move a 100 watt muscle in the right way can be hugely effective, far more effective than a 1000 watt muscle with 5 watts of brain. This is really what finance does. They improve the movement of the muscle.