Jane Street is the best quant trading company I know. It’s also the only quant trading company I know. And the reason I know about it has nothing to do with “global liquidity.” They publish a new brain teaser puzzle every month or two. My son Peter discovered them several months ago, and he will usually enlist my help in trying to solve them. A week ago, he told me the newest puzzle was right up my alley, because it was music based:
He was right. But being cuckoo about music wasn’t a guarantee that we’d crack the code and figure out the final answer. I spent quite a bit of time trying to solve even one of the “songs” on the album cover. But eventually I got one (see below if you’re OK with a spoiler) which then led to Peter and I tag teaming on the others. (With me as the lead on the older hints and Peter tapping into his pop music knowledge for the more recent ones.)
This may seem weird to you (or to anyone who is more familiar with typical father-son pursuits such as fishing, camping, and baseball games), but I love the time we spend together working on these puzzles. Especially when one of us cracks part of one of the hints, and the other builds off that to bring it home. Two heads really are better than one. And it does my heart good to spend some quality time with my adult son. (Ditto for going to concerts by my oldest son’s band… and going to IU football games with my youngest… and going to concerts with my daughter.)
Once we understood the pattern, we were off and running. Some came rather easily, others took a bit of pondering. But like most Jane Street puzzles, solving the first part creates a second level challenge, which then leads to a final answer. Once again, we put our heads together to solve it – I got it started, and Peter brought it home.
If you solve the puzzle, you can submit your name(s) on the Jane Street site. Damn straight we took credit for our work!
And it’s smart marketing on Jane Street’s part to publish new puzzles. It’s great for building their brand and attracting the smartest minds to their company.
They even made their “why we do puzzles” explainer a puzzle!
Using our minds and putting our hearts into it – it doesn’t take a genius to figure out why that’s so satisfying.
spoiler!
This was the clue that opened the floodgates for me:
At first my head went to Nine Inch Nails, because they originally did the song “Hurt.” But the Johnny Cash version is more popular, mostly based on the amazing music video (see below). So “Cash” + (in a fender bender) became “Crash.” Giving us an “R” for the next level hint. The other songs on the album are similar – artist’s name + an extra letter, and that extra letter helps spell out the next hint. Happy solving!
You done said…