Wow, talk about hard-asses. The Times' fascinating story on Larry Summers's stint at D.E. Shaw, the hedge fund that made him a wealthy man, includes this intriguing nugget:
Then a young Harvard graduate named Julius Gaudio, whom Mr. Summers had met at alumni events, raised another possibility: D.E. Shaw, where Mr. Gaudio is a managing director. As part of Shaw’s rigorous screening process — the firm accepts perhaps one out of every 500 applicants — Mr. Summers was asked to solve math puzzles. He passed, and the job was his. [emphasis added.]
Really? Math puzzles? You wouldn't accept, say, a Bates Clark Medal instead?
--Noam Scheiber