Sam thought time pressure favored him. It wasn’t that he thrived under pressure; it was that he didn’t feel it. He wasn’t better than usual when he was on a clock; he just wasn’t worse—and most people were. Other people felt emotions; he did not. Most people, facing a complicated problem and a ticking sound, had trouble seeing quickly what mattered and what did not, especially if the problem had no perfect solution. Few of the Jane Street traders’ questions had perfectly correct answers. They were testing him for an ability to make messy judgments and act quickly on them—and not to be too
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