In 2010, Jim Simons gave a masterclass at MIT on mathematics, business & building the most successful hedge fund in history. His frameworks: • Be guided by beauty • Collaborate with the best • Slavishly follow the model 15 lessons from the greatest investor of all time:

1. The floor sweeper who fooled them all At 14, Simons worked in a garden supply basement. He couldn't remember where anything went. "They demoted me to floor sweeper. I loved it. I could think while I walked." When he told them he wanted to study math at MIT, "they thought that was the funniest thing they'd ever heard." He got in. They didn't.

2. The moment he knew "There was a professor named Warren Ambrose. Very inspiring mathematician." "One night, I saw him come into a diner at midnight with this other guy, Singer. They sat down and did mathematics." "I thought: this is the coolest thing in the world. Just go out at 2am with your friends and do mathematics over coffee." "That was the clincher."

3. He got fired for opposing the Vietnam War Simons wrote a letter to the New York Times criticizing General Maxwell Taylor's war optimism. A few months later, a Newsweek reporter interviewed him. He shared his views openly. His boss called Taylor. Taylor said: "Fire him." "It was the first time and happily the last time I was ever fired."

4. Better to be a firer than a firee After getting fired, Simons took a job as chairman at Stony Brook against his mentor's advice. "I figured it was better to be a firer than a firee." "There was a fair amount of firing that had to be done. The department was very weak." "But we hired a lot of people. We had a good time. We built a good department."

5. Why he left mathematics at 38 "I was stuck on a problem. I was wholly incapable of solving it." "I was on the wrong side of a divorce. I was on the right side of my next marriage, I had a new girlfriend." "My South American business started paying dividends. I invested that money and found out I wasn't bad at it." "It was time for a change."

6. The gut-wrenching nature of trading "If you're doing fundamental trading, one morning you come in feeling like a genius. Your positions are all your way." "The next day they've gone against you and you feel like an idiot." "We were pretty good at it. But it didn't seem like a way to live your life."

7. Remarkable luck then models "We had a remarkable run. In two years, we multiplied investor money by 12." "We were incredibly lucky." "But in the back of my mind: maybe we could build models." "By 1988, I decided: it's going to be 100% models. And it has been ever since."

8. Slavishly follow the model "Some firms say they have models. What they mean is: the model advises the trader. If he likes the advice, he takes it. If not, he doesn't." "That's not science. You can't simulate how you were feeling when you got out of bed 13 years ago." "If you trade using models, you slavishly use the models. You do whatever it says, no matter how smart or dumb you think it is."

9. The secret sauce "People ask: what's the secret?" "We start with great scientists. First-class people who've done first-class work." "We provide great infrastructure. People come from everywhere and say they've never seen it easier to work." "And we have an open atmosphere. Everybody knows what everybody else is doing."

10. No compartmentalization "We don't have little groups saying 'this is our system, we developed it, we get paid based on that.'" "None of that." "Everybody meets once a week. Any new idea gets brought up, discussed, vetted." "Everyone gets paid based on the overall profits. So everyone has an interest in everyone else's success."

11. Why we don't have enough math teachers "If they knew the subject well, they'd also know enough to work for Google or Goldman Sachs." "The world is so much more quantified than 30 years ago." "The difference in pay and respect is so great for someone qualified to teach high school math they get pulled away." "You have to make the job better."

12. Guiding principle #1: Do something new "I don't like to run with the pack. For one thing, I'm not such a fast runner." "If you're one of N people all working on the same problem, I know I'd be last." "But if you can think of a new problem, something others aren't all working on, maybe that'll give you a chance."

13. Guiding principle #2: Collaborate with the best "When you see a person who seems like a great guy to work with, try to find a way to do it." "That gives you reach and scope." "And it's also fun to work with terrific people."

14. Guiding principle #3: Be guided by beauty "Pretty much everything I've done has had an aesthetic component." "You might think: building a company that trades bonds, what's aesthetic about that?" "What's aesthetic is doing it right. Getting the right people. Approaching the problem correctly." "If you feel you're the first one to do it right, that's a beautiful thing."

15. Guiding principle #4: Don't give up. And hope for good luck. "Sometimes it's appropriate to be trying something for a hell of a long time." "And finally hope for some good luck." "I've had a lot of good luck in my career."

Jim Simons on the real secret: "Great people. Great infrastructure. Open environment. Everyone is compensated based on overall performance." "No one of those seems so remarkable. But together, they turn out to be a pretty winning combination." His guiding principles: • Do something new • Collaborate with the best • Be guided by beauty • Don't give up • Hope for good luck "I'm not such a fast runner. So I don't run with the pack."

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Jim Simons masterclass is pure gold!

The world will test you daily. Not to break you. To check if you are still building or already quitting.

Thanks for this

Great thread

love how he mixes math and business so seamlessly