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Comment by mushufasa | Hacker News Reader

Last month an amazing biographical podcast came out describing his personal journey to starting rentech, and the factors that make the business so competitive.

Certainly worth a listen https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/renaissance-technologies

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I listen to Acquired religiously, but felt this particular episode was pretty weak. They went through Zuckerman's The Man Who Solved the Market [0] chapter by chapter, butchering a few parts because the hosts don't know quant finance well (though they seem to know VC and product very well).

I'd recommend just reading the book instead. I'd also recommend Derman's My Life as a Quant [1] for a broader take at other firms around the same time that Renaissance was taking off.

[0] https://a.co/d/6x7ALkr

[1] https://a.co/d/5vWBOce

It's tough because of how little material is out there.

I will say, I thought their hypothesis on why the fees are so high was very astute. Can't know if it's true or not, but it feels very compelling.

The wealth transfer hypothesis I didn’t really get, but their other hypothesis that it’s a way to nudge non-employees out of the fund is probably right.

I think "wealth transfer" is a poor description. Really it's just a way to ensure they have enough money to compensate (very highly) less tenured employees, and to align incentives better (i.e. not just being paid because you're already rich and tenured).

Yes, I agree. That's a less loaded way of explaining it.

This is by far my favorite podcast series, I’d recommend the ones on Costco, Amazon, and Nvidia as well.

Acquired is amazing. They recently did one on Microsoft which is great too.

Their Novo Nordisk one is really great too!

The podcast seems like a death sentence. They did one on Charlie Munger and he died a few weeks after. Jim Simons also died a few weeks after his episode aired.

Came here to recommend this. This podcast is a good overview for RenTech and their other episodes are good for other companies. Especially the Nintendo series.

They also did an interview with Charlie Munger right before he died. They have good...timing, for sure.

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