vrgtms retweetledi
vrgtms
471 posts
vrgtms retweetledi
Had a Jane Street interview in 2013 that still bothers me.
It was my 6th round. Final interview. The guy walks in carrying no laptop, no notebook, just a cold brew and what I later realized was a single IKEA tea candle.
He writes on the whiteboard:
food: $200
rent: $800
utilities: $150
candles: $3,600
family: dying
Then he turns around and says, “Optimize.”
I laughed because I thought it was a culture-fit bit. He did not laugh.
So I said, “Well, obviously you spend less on candles.”
He says, “Assume candles are non-discretionary.”
Okay.
I start building a model. Basic constraint satisfaction. Family survival as a soft penalty. Candles as a state variable. Maybe there’s an arbitrage where you buy wholesale paraffin and convert the $3,600 line item into inventory.
He stops me.
“You’re thinking like a consultant.”
That’s when I knew I was in trouble.
He says, “Give me a bid-ask on family dying.”
I say, “What?”
He says, “You’re long candles, short family. Where do you make markets?”
I try to recover. I say the real issue is liquidity: rent and utilities are fixed, food is elastic, candles are emotionally inelastic. Therefore the optimal strategy is to securitize future candle enjoyment and borrow against it.
He nods for the first time.
Then he asks, “What time do you sell the candles?”
I say, “Whenever the market is liquid?”
He says, “Be more specific.”
I say, “Uh… 10 a.m. Eastern?”
For the first time, he smiles.
He goes, “Every day?”
I say, “Every day.”
He says, “In size?”
I say, “In size.”
He says, “And what do we call that?”
I say, “Market manipulation?”
The room gets very quiet.
He looks disappointed and writes something down.
“No. We call it providing liquidity to candle ETFs during the U.S. cash open.”
I try to save it. “Right. Of course. The family isn’t dying because we underfunded them. They’re just experiencing temporary price discovery.”
He nods again.
Then he points back at the board.
I had missed it. The utility bill was $150, but candles provide light. You can zero out utilities.
I update the budget:
food: $200
rent: $800
utilities: $0
candles: $3,750
family: still dying, but now in a more capital-efficient way
He says, “How confident are you?”
I say, “0.95.”
He smiles and circles candles.
“0.95 huh?”
Then he asks me to estimate how many leveraged longs get liquidated if we dump $3,750 of candles at 10:00:01 every morning for 90 consecutive trading days.
Needless to say I did not get the offer.
Deedy@deedydas
Jane Street made ~$40B in 2025 with 3,500 employees, a ~2x from the year before. At ~65-70% profit margin, that's $8M profit / employee, the highest for a 1000+ ppl company. High-frequency trading continues to be the most efficient money making engine. I want to share an old story about my Jane Street interview in 2014. Jane Street was known for hiring a lot of math, physics and CS olympiad winners from top universities and putting them through many rounds - including, for trading roles, a gauntlet of mental math. It was my 6th interview and my final round and I recall being asked "What is the next day after today in DD/MM/YYYY where all the digits are unique?" They'd toy with you and say "You can use a pencil and paper, if you want" but you knew that was an instant no. Painstakingly and as quickly as I could, I came to an answer. "How confident are you that this is correct on a 0-1 probability scale?" the interviewer said. "0.95", I blurted out, not fully knowing how to answer that. "Are you sure?" After thinking harder for a few more seconds, I realized I could've flipped the digits around to get a closer date. I gave the interviewer my answer. It was correct. "0.95 huh?" he chuckled. That's when I knew I failed. Note: fwiw, other companies that come close in efficiency are - Tether ($90M+ profit/emp) - Hyperliquid ($80M+ profit/emp) and on revenue: - Valve ($50M/emp) - OnlyFans ($37M/emp) - Craigslist ($14M/emp) - Anthropic ($12M/emp, run rate) - OpenAI ($8M/emp, run rate) For comparison, Nvidia is very efficient at scale and is $4.4M/emp.
English
vrgtms retweetledi
Damn, I can't find my passport to turn on my computer....
English
vrgtms retweetledi
@KriptoArenaYT Persze, 3000 dolláros stagnálásnál eladtam az ETH-emet, most várom, hogy mikor szálljak vissza 😎
Magyar
My advice to men who are in their 20s:
Start with C++20, then C++23 and then C++26.
After that, since you're in your 30s, you should be okay to follow it up with C++32, C++35 and C++38
atlas@bestplayeratlas
Men who are more than 30 Give advice to men who are in their 20s The topic can be anything
English
I’m unemployed for the next four days.
What should I do?
English
vrgtms retweetledi
@Jonathan_Blow Sorry Jon, but how could we disagree with this opinion of yours? You're ruining Twitter for us here.
English
Not gonna lie, bacon is pretty tasty.
I especially like it when it's overcooked and crispy / crunchy.
English
vrgtms retweetledi
Thy Catafalque "Cor Cordium (Demo 1999)"
Vinyl release August 1.
fractionsofliferecords.bandcamp.com
Română
vrgtms retweetledi
we all died in 2020 and this is hell
Alps@alpaysh
Startup idea: AI powered Labubus with voice mode
English
@BankutiDani A fancy tunerek meg fancy húrlábak szvsz igazán nem adnak hozzá a gitárhoz, hacsak nem igáslóként koncerten kell helyt állnia vagy éjjel-nappal nyüstölik a stúdióban.
Magyar
@BankutiDani Tipik egyujjas nu-metalos témákra két humbuckeres Les Paul stílusú gitárokat ajánlanék.
A további paraméterek (a fogólap és a test anyaga, aktív vagy passzív hangszedők) attól függnek, hogy milyen hangzást szeretnél kitekerni belőle igazán jóra, hogy beilleszkedjen a mixbe.
Magyar
