The name one137th comes from a number that physicists have been fascinated by for decades: roughly 1/137, the fine-structure constant, α.
It’s a strange thing, a dimensionless number that determines the strength of the electromagnetic force. Change it even slightly and you change the size of atoms, the chemistry of matter, and ultimately the shape of the universe itself.
Finance borrowed the same symbol, α, for something different: the part of return that isn’t simply explained by market exposure. Alpha is the edge, the return created by process, judgment, information, and design rather than just riding the tide.
I liked the overlap.
Small numbers often determine large structures. Tiny shifts in assumptions compound into very different outcomes. In physics, understanding the constants matters because the entire system rests on them. In investing and consulting, the same idea applies: understand the parameters that actually matter, build around reality rather than stories, and avoid designing systems that fail under stress.
That’s the thinking behind one137th.