Many years ago, Jim Simons took an interest in my theoretical work on discrete topology (still unpublished) in the context of this fund. Among other things, this research provided a powerful mechanism for finding relationships in data that are effectively intractable to discover by more conventional means. Many of the mathematicians associated with Renaissance at the time had diverse and impressive theoretical backgrounds, all focused on different areas of mathematics that could loosely be applied to discovery of signals that, importantly, would be difficult to find via more conventional statistical analysis.

My immediate impression was that this was not a coincidence. Having talked to many other hedge funds over the years, I've come to realize that this is even more anomalous than it seemed at the time. While you will sometimes find a person on the cutting edge of these kinds of mathematics at other funds it tends to be an isolated case. Many hedge funds have boringly simplistic approaches to signal discovery. People overestimate how widely distributed and available this kind of expertise is.

Renaissance are not better at investing per se, they are better at signal discovery than anyone else and invested heavily in maintaining that (meta-)edge over the years, the investing part is relatively mechanical after the signal is discovered.