[markgall]

Will be interesting to see how this affects math research. He has pumped unthinkable amounts of money into the field. The only first-class flights I've taken in my life were to get to Simons-funded conferences at super fancy hotels. (I found these conferences a bit ridiculous, but the luxury treatment did ensure that they could get together a lot of the biggest names in the field in one place.)

Besides the conferences, there is the SCGP at Stony Brook, the Simons Center in Manhattan, whatever MSRI is called now, AMS-Simons travel grants, tons of money for the arXiv, the Magma license deal... and that's just the stuff that I've benefited from personally. I know there's more, Simons Collaboration grants and probably other things I've never heard of. He was very good to us all.

We've always joked that Phds in geometry-adjacent fields have to have one of the highest average incomes of any degree, probably at least $1 million a year. Simons making $3 billion, the rest of us making 90k apiece.

[mycologos]

Hopefully the Simons empire has enough people who will keep executing his vision and stave off bureaucratic rot.

Making money is one thing, but circulating so much of it back through math and science is a great legacy.

[qq66]

The thing is that he genuinely loved math. I don't think there's really anyone in his orbit who loves math as much. His family is his family and his colleagues love money.

We'll see in the coming months and years whether he was able to create a structure that continues his legacy but usually the answer to that question is no.

[caddemon]

His foundation also donates a lot to neuroscience research, particularly for Autism. I think there was a family reason for that, so probably at least some of his scientific philanthropy will continue for awhile. But yeah it's extremely hard to create a structure that would perpetuate without the remaining people at the top truly buying into and understanding the mission.

[ironSkillet]

I have heard that he had at least one child with autism, hence his desire to fund efforts to better fund autism and the brain.

[jdonaldson]

It's hard watching venerable institutions rot into "just avoid administerial short term blame" death loops. You have to have skin in the game, not just hire a temporary manager for it.

[anonymouse008]

subtweet @apple

[paulpauper]

I think it's doable. Institutions under top leadership can thrive long after its founders die. This is true of almost every Fortune 500 company. I am sure there is enough redundancy to continue the foundation's goal. Carnegie foundation or Ford foundation, or Apple computers after jobs died .

[epolanski]

I don't understand the relationship with Steve Jobs. Nobody's arguing that Renaissance, his investment fund, will do well without him.

We're talking about the philanthropy that Simmons led in mathematics and science through his foundation.

Now, whether this support will continue depends on the will of Jim as well as his family.

[eigenvalue]

I’d argue that Ford and Carnegie foundations are not good examples here, having veered very far from the intention/goals of the original donors into directions that are arguably diametrically opposed. Essentially they were hijacked from within by hired “professional managers” who pursued their own agendas. Maybe in the future we can set up AIs to make the decisions on our behalf after we’re gone, because humans are extremely unreliable over longer time frames!

[ghaff]

It’s also not unheard of to structure a foundation to just run their assets down over time exactly on the theory that, given enough time, who know how the money will be distributed.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_M._Olin_Foundation

[altruios]

sadly, the trend for these sorts of things is to sour after the original founder leaves...

There is an esoteric concept that has some dynamics that explain this phenomenon somewhat. Not to get to into the weeds (the origins of this concept are esoteric religious ideas - I mean this secularly, as it relates to business entities) but the concept is an 'egregore'

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egregore#:~:text=An%20egregore....

I don't see it on the Wikipedia page, but the theory that explains the degradation of a companies original mission statement can be summarized as this: "Within an organization(egregore) there exists three classes of individuals... the primary two of which are those that serve in the name of the egregore, and those that serve the egregore directly, the third (a smaller %) being those un-loyal to the current structure and would change the egregore to suit their needs. Of the main two: The dichotomy can be spilt along lines like developers/founders vs marketers/sales, where developers are interested in serving the mission statement and developing a good product, and marketers are interested in growth and survival, at the expense of everything else. So when the developers/founders leave, the vacuum that is created is filled either by those that would change the egregore, or corrupt the mission statement in the name of growth and profit."

This is a simplistic model - with a fair bit of predictive and explanatory power. I have found it useful to describe that shift inside a corporation.

[next_xibalba]

Simons has been out of day-to-day management for quite some time. He was succeeded by co-CEOs who were then themselves succeeded, IIRC. (These are my recollections from reading The Man Who Solved the Market). Apparently his management style was always pretty hands off and they operated multiple successful quant strategies that were led by others. Their Medallion fund returned 22% after (huge) fees in 2022 according to the WSJ. [1] That's the employee only fund that has blown the doors off for 30+ years. They do have a few other funds that manage much more $ and manage external money that have never performed at Medallion's level. In other words, it seems like succession will not be a major risk for them in the near term.

[1] https://www.wsj.com/articles/big-hedge-funds-are-top-perform...

[altruios]

It would imply good processes for keeping out those that would run it to the ground in the name of (short term) profits... That makes me hopeful...

But every succession is a risk. Every merger is a risk... ask Boeing.

[martin-t]

This split exists not just in organizations but in society at large. Some people are builders and some are redistributors. Builders take pride in creating value and redistributors can provide useful service by making value available to more people. Very often engineers are not interested in marketing/selling their product and redistributors fill a useful niche.

However, some fraction of redistributors are willing to enrich themselves at the expense of others. These should never be allowed to make decisions affecting others. A founder should always look for people from the first group by looking at their past behavior and make sure those succeed him.

[agumonkey]

I find the tension between founders(idealists) / marketers(survivalists) pretty interesting. The Jobs-less apple era is one recent instance I assume.

[altruios]

Both are needed. But Currently there are no checks in place to prevent this 'mind-share' take-over, so to speak...

[andbberger]

HHMI is going strong. didn't really kick until gear until after Hughes died, but still

[jhbadger]

That's because the HHMI as planned by Hughes was kind of a scam. It took legal decisions against his family to establish HHMI as a serious biomedical funding agency.

[heresie-dabord]

Thank you for not dragging us into the weeds of esotericism.

What is the source for the quotation in your post?

[altruios]

I am struggling to find that, sadly I am coming up short. It was from an essay, I believe, with a secular view of these things. But I can't seem to find the author. that was before I had zotero to organize these sources :)

[pfd1986]

Interesting concept. Would love to learn more if you can think of a reference

[pfd1986]

Edit: Claude for the rescue

"Here are some additional sources that discuss the concept of an egregore and how it can be applied to understanding group dynamics and the evolution of organizations:

"The Anatomy of the Body of God" by Frater Achad (Charles Stansfeld Jones) - A detailed exposition on the occult concept of egregores from a ceremonial magic perspective.

"Web of Debt" by Ellen Hodgson Brown - This book discusses egregores in the context of economic systems and the power of collective beliefs shaping institutions.

"The Egregore Effect" by Jack Willis - Explores egregores as self-reinforcing memetic constructs that shape group behavior.

"The Cult of Information" by Theodore Roszak - While not directly about egregores, it discusses how ideologies and worldviews can take on a life of their own within organizations.

"The Organizational Hologram" by David Bohm - Applies concepts from quantum physics to understanding the undivided wholeness of organizations

[free_energy_min]

Thanks for sharing this, super interesting!

[eru]

> Hopefully the Simons empire has enough people who will keep executing his vision and stave off bureaucratic rot.

I think that fear is why the Gates foundation (or was it the one by Buffett or both?) have to spend down their endowment within a few years of the founder's death and then close shop.

[bmitc]

For what it's worth, the foundation was actually kickstarted by his wife.

[m463]

I used to think this kind of thing was because someone didn't care.

But I also think someone is at high level, a partner might be the only one who can look at things from above, seeing the big big picture.

Of course it could be the person doesn't care, but it could also be the person is busy, etc

[bmitc]

I actually think they both cared. My comment was more to point out that she is still alive and is a computer scientist, so the foundation still has founding leadership.

[wslh]

It is not about enough people, it is about THE PERSON. Every people is different and there are people who are more different and outliers.

[hinkley]

I wonder if he left any of the rest of his money to the foundation, or if it all stays with his family.

[paulpauper]

https://givingpledge.org/pledger?pledgerId=288

giving it away

[1980phipsi]

Quanta Magazine is also funded by his foundation.

[max_]

Even the Numberphile YouTube Channel.

He was very serious about improving maths education and actually did alot.

[7thaccount]

Man. That Numberphile episode on Fermat's Last Theorem with Simon Singh had me on the edge of my seat like I was as a child when Darth Maul pulled out that double-bladed lightsaber during Phantom Menace. I'm not a math major either.

[rajnathani]

Quanta is by the Simons Foundation, whereas the Numberphile YouTube channel is simply sponsored by them.

[hnbear]

I thought Numberphile is sponsored by Jane St. Another math focused quant firm.

[max_]

They have many sponsors.

Jim Discovered their channel, liked it and invited them to his New York Apartment for an interview. [1]

From that time forward, all Numberphile videos have "Simons Foundation" at the end listed as a sponsor.

[1]: Here is the video https://youtu.be/QNznD9hMEh0?si=SVnDx77dQNepMRJW

[markgall]

Good point! Far and away the best popularization of recent results, at least in the eyes of a mathematician.

[nextos]

And lots of great work in quantitative biology, which is hard to get funded elsewhere.

[frinxor]

came here to mention this as well! fantastic ezine that i click everytime i see it linked here.

[squirrel6]

Not to mention Math for America, which is one of the best funded organizations of its kind…

[markgall]

Another important one! I think they pump a lot of money into the MoMath as well. It's just hard to come up with every way the math world depends on Simons money.

[hx2a]

I believe Jim Simons is also one of the founders behind the National Museum of Mathematics in NYC.

https://momath.org/

[hinkley]

His wife also helps run the foundation doesn’t she? Looks like she’s ~73 so hopefully has a few years left.

[hinkley]

Geeze, phrasing. I meant "a few years of actively supporting the foundation", not "let's start a death clock."

[pyrrhotech]

73 is less than a decade into retirement age; hopefully she has much more than a few! Looks like 14.5 years life expectancy

[eru]

> Looks like 14.5 years life expectancy

And I assume that's for normal people of her age and gender? She's probably far from normal.

[infinet]

Been a mathematician, he also funds physics. See Simons Observatory that studies Cosmic Microwave Background.

[abhgh]

I wasn't aware of this till a friend told me: the Simons foundation partly also funds the Perimeter institute [1].

[1] https://perimeterinstitute.ca/news/new-simons-foundation-sup...

[jasondigitized]

He was worth an ungodly amount of money. His foundation or whatever vehicle he chose will surely be around for a long time.

[ilrwbwrkhv]

This is what Elon musk could have been. Instead of that he became a 13 yr old guy.

[mciancia]

Right, because spacex, starlink, tesla and neuralink don't exist. All he does is shitposting

[spr-alex]

this was posted down into the comments already but geometry has nothing to do with https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/02/business/renaissance-irs-...

the simons foundation will have influence on machine learning and medicine for many decades to come though and will hopefully be a force of positivity in these fields

[lupire]

Simons was a geometer.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/1970273?origin=crossref

[ev7]

And the Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing at Berkeley!

[next_xibalba]

> found these conferences a bit ridiculous

Was it the content/aims of the conferences, or just that they were so ostentatiously luxurious?

[xiaodai]

Magma. Only in the us. Sydney where it’s developed have to pay for it

[PaulHoule]

That money for the arXiv was a decade late. arXiv barely survived the 2000s.

[infecto]

> That money for the arXiv was a decade late. arXiv barely survived the 2000s.

I find this kind of comment quite distasteful on someones death. Was he actively trying to destroy arXiv?

[PaulHoule]

I'm not blaming Simons, I am blaming the people I worked for when I worked at arXiv who, again, took a decade to start looking for sustainable funding.

[infecto]

While this thread is by no means as formal of an event. Picture yourself at someones memorial service, before/during/after the service you bring up a topic that is orthogonal to the person's life and frames it about yourself instead of the person being memorialized. Its just a bit weird.

[adammarples]

Now picture yourself a million miles from that, on a semi anonymous third-tier comment thread on a bulletin board

[ignoramous]

LARPing is likely Internet's favourite pass-time.

[yau8edq12i]

Memorial service? What are you on about? In all likelihood, nobody here had met the guy, and HN would hardly even be on his radar. Picture yourself at a coffee place discussing some celebrity's life event and maybe it won't be so weird anymore.

[davrosthedalek]

I think you are underestimating the reach of HN. While I personally didn't know Jim, I know several people who did. And I know many people, me included, who benefited from his generosity and support of science.

[jandrewrogers]

As an anecdote of one, I knew him.

[soperj]

That's a strange sentiment, it's not like he had to donate at all?

[77pt77]

How difficult is to run a glorified BBS over HTTP/HTML like that?

Like seriously?

It's not as difficult as the stuff being published there.

[prepend]

I’ve noticed this cycle for the past 30 years on the internet where a useful thing starts out really simply (host a BBS, or host a billion pdfs forever). It’s not trivial, but it seems like it should be pretty low resource.

Then people get hired and are into it and want to get paid (as people do). And costs go up. And slowly more people get added. And instead of looking for cheap ways to operate, they want to fund those people and give them 5% raises every year.

So they look for funders to cover “the bare minimum.”

So rather than figuring out how to operate efficiently, they look for benefactors.

I love arxiv and use it all the time. But why do they have employees? And what are their costs? And why not get it to the point of operating with volunteers.

I suppose someone can do that and set it up. Until then, I’ll just donate or applaud benefactors. And use scihub too I suppose. How much does that cost to run?

[PaulHoule]

When I worked there our estimates were that running costs came to about $5 per published paper compared to $5000-$20,000 at commercial journal publishers. It is still a lean operation but I think it’s a bad sign they moved most operations out of the Ithaca campus and right into high-cost NYC.

[renewiltord]

Ah, good looking out. It was on my list for this year https://info.arxiv.org/about/donate.html but if it's useless I'll skip it. More for GiveWell it is.

[lupire]

Why would you change your donation plans based on an unsubstantiated snarky comment about an event 15 years ago?

[renewiltord]

I have a spreadsheet. I take action at the end of the year depending on whether I'm itemizing or not (which I'll know at the end). I'm not going to do too much research. I'll add to it if I have a positive experience. If something annoying barely approaches the space of a thing I blacklist. I have some retention of some things on it but others I might fail to blacklist. In this case, I remembered.

I have a good base-case: GiveWell. So I'm content to dump everyone else on the slightest suspicion. I don't really care that much.