re Move Over, Coders - Physicists Will Soon Rule Silicon Valley

["Dave Farber" <farber () gmail com>]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: John Karabaic <jk () exnext com>
> Date: January 16, 2017 at 6:00:57 PM EST
> To: "dave () farber net" <dave () farber net>
> Subject: Re: [IP] re Move Over, Coders - Physicists Will Soon Rule Silicon Valley
>
> In the mid-90’s, the USA canceled the Superconducting Supercollider.  It became impossible for physicists to find 
> jobs doing physics.  They found they could make a lot of money applying their mathematical know-how to Wall Street 
> problems, which welcomed them with open arms and wallets.  The Black-Scholes equation had made derivatives pricing a 
> “science”,  and financial markets wanted scientists.  
>
> In the mid-90’s, a colleague at a well-known options trading firm told me, “To make money I need three things: an 
> algorithm, a coder and a salesforce.”
>
> That’s what gave us the pile of steaming code that led to The Great Recession in 2008.
>
> It’ll be interesting to see what this diversion of physicists leads to.  Maybe we should fund some big physics 
> project just to keep our economy safe.
>
> > What did we -- humanity -- lose when a clearly-qualified physicist
> > stopped researching the mysteries of the universe and starting writing
> > online payment code?
> >
> > I'm reminded of this:
> >
> >      1965 Engineer: I'm working on a rocket to put a man on the moon.
> >      2015 Engineer: I trick people into clicking on ads.
> >              --- Reactionary CEO, March 2015
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>
> -- 
> John Karabaic
> gpg key available at hkp://keys.gnupg.net
> http://twitter.com/karabaic
> http://facebook.com/karabaic
> 513.295.6365



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