Korva is a scroll of the internet’s best ideas.
Nicknamed the Animal at Goldman
Chad Cascarilla could run on a lot less sleep in those years and still operate at a much higher level. He would hop on a flight, sleep on the plane for two hours, and go straight to work or wherever he was headed.
He could sleep on floors. There were multiple all-nighters, and he thinks there was one month with about 30 days straight.
The name came from that ability to push the limits and just keep going. Today he is a shadow of his former self when it comes to sleep.
How can some people sleep so little?
In 2009, researchers at the University of California, San Francisco reported a mutation in a gene called DEC2 in a family whose members naturally slept about six hours a night, compared with the eight or so typical for adults. The group, led by Ying-Hui Fu, then bred mice carrying the mutation, and those mice also slept less. Such natural short sleepers are rare.
Why do banking analysts pull all-nighters?
Analyst programs at investment banks are built around deal calendars. A merger or bond sale has fixed dates for filings, lender meetings, and announcements, and the junior staff prepare the models and presentation books behind each one. When a date moves up, the work expands to fit, which is how multi-day stretches in the office became common. Most analyst programs last two years.
More from Joys of Compounding
