Are There Two Kinds of Quant Thinking - Abundance or Scarcity?

Weekends are always a bit dangerous. I hike through woods, read more general stuff ... This post is inspired by this Podcast in Michael Hyatt's blog,


In short, abundance thinkers
  • believe their sources are rich and there will be more to come
  • are happy to share their knowledge
  • default to trust
  • welcome competition
  • want to give more than expected
  • embrace risk
scarcity thinkers 
  • believe there will be never enough
  • cautious with their knowledge
  • default to suspicion
  • resent competition
  • want to get by with less than expected
  • avoid risk
In the quant community I'd rather would say welcome vs reject co-operation (as one of the drivers for innovation). This comes from the fact that they are often under the pressure of extreme requirements and the need to make someone else's tight deadlines. 

In general, it is not that simple with quant thinking? As I have sketched in Extreme Quants - Survive Anywhere quants are more enablers than explorers. They shall think fresh, but never leave the comfort zone. They shall measure risk and help to optimize financial risk, but avoid operational risk. They shall turn failure into experience.

Quant work is special - we want to serve it with special technologies and comprehensive information, how to get out most of this technologies.