chadac_vs_virquant

Finance academic; Hedge fund quant; - publishes books and papers in prestigious journals - travels the world to give talks about his ideas - doesn't have to report to a boss or investors - implements original, complex models that combine many ideas and challenge the state-of-the-art - ironclad job safety - unbeatable work/life balance - freedom to work on the most meaningful projects - occasionally advises banks and hedge funds for $$$ - is loved by his students - wife is a beautiful literature professor - makes more money than most quants just by selling textbooks; - is basically a slave - glued to his desk - failed in academia, had to rebound in the industry - mostly implements basic well-known ideas - everything he does is run of the mill - can get fired at any time - has to work whenever he is asked to - works for billionaires, will never be a billionaire - everyone says S&P 500 beats him (and more often than he wishes that's actually true) - makes less money than a tier B influencer - reports to investors, CIO/CRO/CEO/COO/CTO, MDs, PMs, senior quants - doesn't publish, has no visibility, no prestige - women prefer doctors and lawyers, gets cucked by unattractive wife - it's literally just linear regression and data cleaning