My top 10 highlights from the book:

1.  Simons was filled with preternatural confidence and an unusual determination to accomplish something special.

2.  He saw himself as an explorer on the trail of untold riches with almost no one in pursuit.

3.  What Jim wants to do is matter. He wanted a life that meant something. If he was going to do a fund, he wanted to be the best.

4.  Jim understood at an early age that money is power. He didn't want people to have power over him.

5.  Simons never took a single finance class, didn’t care very much for business, and, until he turned forty, only dabbled in trading.

6.  We were viewed as flakes with ridiculous ideas. Simons didn't care about the doubters.

7.  Simons realized he had a unique approach, mulling problems until he arrived at original solutions. Friends sometimes noticed him lying down, eyes closed, for hours at a time. He was a ponderer with imagination and the instinct to attack the kinds of problems that might lead to true breakthroughs.

8.  Simons developed a unique perspective on talent. He valued killers— those with a single-minded focus who wouldn’t quit.

9.  Simons was a terrific listener. It’s one thing to have good ideas, it’s another to recognize when others do. If there was a pony in your pile of horse manure, he would find it.

10.  Simons and his team are among the most secretive traders Wall Street has encountered, loath to drop even a hint of how they’d conquered financial markets, lest a competitor seize on any clue.

Listen to #387 Jim Simons Built The World's Greatest Money-Making Machine on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube.