October 24th 2025
Two years ago I was hiking in the Austrian Alps. Just before I started hiking, my friend Dominik introduced me to the Jane Street puzzles. Out of curiousity, I scribbled that month’s puzzle into my notebook, and started off on my multi-day hike. On a hike you have a lot of downtime, and the second night - camped deep in the mountains, swinging in my hammock - I solved it.
But now, the dilemma - how would I submit this Jane Street puzzle in time for the cut-off, in some 24 hours? There’s no phone service for miles!
The next morning, I wrote the solution onto several scraps with paper, along with Dom’s contact. And as I hiked, whenever I encountered someone, I handed them a note and asked, please send my friend this ten-digit number. I took great pleasure in coming up with different excuses: “I’m measuring latency in human communication.” “It’s part of an art project called The Human Network.” “I can’t explain - I have an NDA!” Most carried the message forward, but just four in time - an outcome I’d quietly allowed for.
To the Jane Street Puzzle Team, the way you come up with this stuff, it blows my mind. I’m not a developer, nor a mathematician, by any means. I’m just a (former) structural engineer who loves solving complex problems.
As of writing, I’ve solved ten puzzles. The ones I’ve published here are simply those whose solutions I find particularly interesting. I hope to add more soon-perhaps other Quanty things as well.
- Kauri
Saturday 24th September 2023
Dear friends and family, and to those of you I’ve met along the way,
As you may or may not know, for the last seven months I’ve been travelling around Europe. I’ve been skiing in Austria and France, explored the German and Austrian Alps, and searched for secret hot springs in the Pyrenees Mountains. I’ve attended a graduation ceremony in Poland, I’ve unofficially co-authored a research paper in Germany, and hitchhiked over 20,000km to date. I’ve fallen in love, I’ve fallen into despair, I’ve contemplated life, battered by howling winds, hanging beneath the legs of a mountaintop power pylon. It’s been a quarter-life crisis of an adventure, and I’d like to share that with you.
I’m ashamed to say, I’m not exactly great at keeping up to date with you, but I think about you a lot. (Some of you, more than others.) That’s why I’ve decided to create this blog, to share with you some of my favourite stories from my travels. Some are stories of love and kindness, of the beautiful people I’ve met along the way. Others are of failure and frustration, or chaos and absurdity. Some yet are simply a documentation of the beauty of nature.
So, I hope you enjoy reading about my experiences, a taste of the bullshit adventures I call life.
Love,
Kauri
Ps: Einige Geschiscten haben ein deutsche Übersetzung. Wenn ihr Deutsche möchten eine Lache, ihnen aufpassen!
Pps: The 2023 itinerary.