interesting article, nothing i haven't read before in one way or another though. it's all in what you want to do though. i want to own my own business one day/ run my own hedge fund. in the meantime im gonna have to work for someone to get experience...

Control your own destiny, or someone else will.
 

I think the author of the article was way too idealistic (perhaps because he is a physics PhD candidate?) and rather egotistical. Yes, Wall Street is shallow and you slave away for people you may not like for the sake of getting paid, but is it really better than living in a one bedroom apartment on a project that will take much more trial and error with a low likelihood of success? Furthermore, while he was such a heavy critic of the greed at Goldman, it is clear he isn't beyond that himself. The only carry away message I got was, "why work your ass off to get a share of someone else's profits when you can start a company and get 100% of the reward along with the recognition?"

 
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I read the article yesterday on Quantnet. I think it was interesting, but didn't really see his side too much. I mean the world was demeaning and he got shit on by a lot of people, but 1) thats finance and 2) I am sure he made a ton of money.

What I did not like is how it seemed as if he was looking down on the traders or sales people for not being as smart as he was. I am a firm believer that people have various types of intelligence and one type of smart is not necessarily better then another type.

Example. I am sure that quant guy could program and do math at a much higher level than the sales guy and the trader. Could the quant get on the desk and make traders or book clients? Probably not. Just because you know something very well does not mean you know everything very well. Doctors fall into this category also.

Maybe if the quant guy was a little more personable things would have been different. Oh, and who takes 5 years for a PhD. He talks about selling his soul and becoming a bitch, it sounds like he just couldn't complete his degree and had to go do something else. I would hardly call working for one of the best companies in the world making ungodly amounts of money "selling out".

Guy had serious sour grapes syndrome.

 

The article is very well written but whether he is trying to be funny or not, he comes off as a complete douche. His assessment of his "smarts" compared to his coworkers seems crass and a good deal of his criticisms are petty when considering the money he was making and exit opps he was receiving. I may not like lacrosse but how does having a Phd in Physics make this guy any better than the guy who played lacrosse at Cornell. I know some people with a similar educational background as this guy and they would never talk like that of other people, anonymously or otherwise. This guy is just one bitter douche, best of luck to his startup.

 

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