I have a habit of – thought habits. I try to total up words in a phrase or a sentence and then divide it to see if I get an even number. Like true love divided by two is four. There’s four words in each things, four and four. ... So, I don’t want an odd number, I want an even number. I do that a lot in my head.

It’s wasting time to listen to music when you go outside because there are so many interesting noises. For example, every time it rains, I open the window and put the recorder outside. I should always be ready to be surprised, like by the siren of a patrol car in Barcelona and other cities. I hit things, on the street or anywhere, to check the sound—until I find the perfect idea of sound. I haven’t found it yet and am always searching.

But here’s one I guess that’s more important to me. It’s not something I confess regularly. But every night before I go to bed, I pull out old issues of Archie comics and read them.

Do, occasionally, give in to temptation. Wash the kitchen floor, hang out the washing. It’s research.

So, I recently bought the FINIS, F-I-N-I-S, swim paddles. They somewhat magically lengthen out my freestyle stroke. And when I combined them with some fins, I use the ones Cressi, C-R-E-S-S-I, I feel sometimes like I’m almost flying through the water.

Yeah. So in financial markets, I really like this somewhat obscure book called The Aspirational Investor by this guy, Ashvin Chhabra, who runs Jim Simons’ family office. Jim Simons started Renaissance Technologies, which is the dominant quant fund.