Ciro Santilli @cirosantilli  40

Paints a very positive picture of the founders. It is likely true. They gave shares generously to early employees. Tried to allow the more general public to buy from IPO, by using a bidding scheme, rather than focusing on the big bankers as was usual.

The introduction mentions that Google is very interested in molecular biology and mining genetics data, much like Ciro Santilli! Can't find external references however...

Two of the most compelling areas that Google and its founders are quietly working on are the promising fields of molecular biology and genetics. Millions of genes in combination with massive amounts of biological and scientific data are an excellent match for the Google search engine, the tremendous database the company has in place, and its immense computing power. Already, Google has downloaded a map of the human genome and is working closely with biologist Dr. Craig Venter and other leaders in genetics on scientific projects that may lead to important breakthroughs in science, medicine, and health. In other words, we may be heading toward a time when people can google their own genes.

The book gives good highlight as to why Google became big: search was just an incredibly computationally intensive task. From very early days, Largey were already making up their own somewhat custom compute systems from very early days, which naturally led into Google custom hardware later on. Google just managed to pull ahead on the reinvest revenue into hardware loop, and no one ever caught them back. This feels more the case than e.g. with Amazon, which notoriously had to buy off dozens of competitors to clear the way.

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High-frequency trading as a form of Nirvana Updated 2025-07-16

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Ciro Santilli once talked to a man who had been working on high-frequency trading for the last six years.

He was quite nice.

Ciro asked him in what way did he feel his job contributed to the benefit of society.

He replied that it didn't contribute at all. It was completely useless. More than that, it so completely useless, that it was even pure. A bit like advanced mathematics, but not even providing beauty for anybody outside of the company, since everything is a closely guarded trade secret, unlike mathematics which is normally published for the vanity recognition.

And so, Ciro was enlightened.

A great mind can work in the most useless branches of finance, without the desire to improve the world, nor make it worse. Not to compete, nor be afraid, nor anxious. A sand mandala.

Only being. Being, in the exact fraction of a moment where bid meets ask.

Nirvana.

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Hermite functions Updated 2025-07-16

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Not the same as Hermite polynomials.

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Hartree-Fock method for the helium atom Updated 2025-07-16

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Why do multiple electrons occupy the same orbital if electrons repel each other? Updated 2025-07-16

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That is, two electrons per atomic orbital, each with a different spin.