Be an American Nerd, Not the Cool Child, If You Wish to Survive

I wasn’t all the time a private Finance nerd, however I step by step grew to become one out of survival. That is my story — and my statement over the previous 27 years — of why being an “American nerd” has turn into extra essential than ever if you wish to rise in your profession or obtain monetary freedom sooner.

For context, I not view the phrase nerd pejoratively as I did in highschool, once I was inspired to play sports activities, exercise, discover a girlfriend, and do properly at school. I preferred courting an excessive amount of to be forged as a nerd. As a guardian now, I’d be thrilled if my youngsters was tremendous nerds. IT could be the one means they’ll thrive and stay impartial in in the present day’s ultra-competitive world.

No girlfriend or boyfriend in center or highschool? Superior! Extra time to review and fewer threat of being a teenage guardian with a harder street forward.

Not touring each weekend for membership soccer? Hooray! Extra money saved, fewer accidents, and extra time for studying an instrument, a second language, or the humanities. In any case, solely about 2% of U.S. highschool athletes obtain any type of athletic scholarship to play in faculty.

Solely have a few pals who’re additionally nerds? Great. Problem one another to continue to learn and rising. With loving dad and mom and perhaps a sibling, one good buddy is actually all you want anyway… to have sufficient trainers to beat any legendary raid in Pokémon Go!

Right now, nerds clearly rule the world. Let’s dig in!

Rising Up Common

Since 1999, I’ve lived in New York Metropolis and San Francisco — two of probably the most aggressive, brain-powered cities in America. They’re magnets for prime college students from elite universities who come to make their fortunes. The competitors is relentless. Should you can’t sustain intellectually, IT’s arduous to remain afloat.

Once I was in public highschool in McLean, Virginia, I attempted to do properly. I’d heard from an older pupil again in Kuala Lumpur throughout center faculty that prime faculty grades mattered, so I took that to coronary heart.

However irrespective of how arduous I studied, I couldn’t crack the code. I completed with a 3.65 GPA — a B+/A– common. Spanish verb conjugations tripped me up, superior math appeared pointless, and science lecturers have been brutal graders. After studying some SAT prep books on the library, I could not break a 1,200 on the SAT both. Ultimately, I gave up making an attempt to be a nerd and targeted on tennis and enjoyable as a substitute.

And boy, did I’ve enjoyable, maybe an excessive amount of of IT. I received into bother for shoplifting, combating, and pulling dumb pranks that I really remorse. I’m sorry and I paid the worth. Fortunately, I nonetheless received into The Faculty of William & Mary, faculty, however not elite. I knew my household could not comfortably afford sending me to a non-public college, so I stayed in state at $2,800 a yr in tuition.

With a second likelihood, I vowed to not mess issues up in faculty too. Neither must you, as prime universities reminiscent of Columbia has roughly 40% of its pupil physique consisting of worldwide college students.

My Fortunate Break

My massive break got here from a mixture of luck, timing, and hustle. One Saturday, I received on a 6 a.m. constitution bus for a Wall Road recruiting occasion.

None of my classmates confirmed up, so after half-hour of ready, the driving force drove me to a random shed and switched out the bus for a Lincoln Towncar to drive me 2 hours up from Williamsburg to Washington D.C. There I landed interviews with a number of bulge bracket companies. Thanks largely to a recruiter named Kim Purkiss, who believed in me, I joined Goldman Sachs in 1999.

13 years on Wall Road taught me that intelligence is simply desk stakes. Being sensible counts for perhaps 35%. The remainder is figure ethic, teamwork, attraction, and luck. Everybody is wise – so the true edge comes from being obsessive about studying and execution.

Enter the Tremendous Nerds

Engaged on Wall Road uncovered me to loads of tremendous nerds from prime colleges. However what stunned me was what number of of them have been additionally well-rounded, particularly when IT got here to sports activities.

My instant colleagues at Goldman had each brains and brawn: my boss performed soccer at Dartmouth as a fullback, one other at Penn State as a linebacker. Later, my direct boss at Credit score Suisse had additionally performed soccer at Cal and was president of his fraternity, Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE). The man oozed charisma. We had an absolute blast entertaining shoppers.

Nevertheless, once I went to Berkeley for my MBA part-time (2003–2006), I used to be out of the blue surrounded by principally tremendous nerds. Most labored in tech. About 65% have been engineers, and roughly half of these had come from India — most from the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT), the place the acceptance price is round 1%.

Consider IIT as MIT or Caltech on steroids. Graduating from there requires each excessive intelligence and starvation. They have been scary sensible. These qualities now gasoline most of the leaders working America’s largest tech companies:

Satya Nadella – CEO of Microsoft.

Sundar Pichai – CEO of Alphabet Inc. (and of Google).

Arvind Krishna – CEO (and Chairman) of IBM. 

Jayshree Ullal – CEO of Arista Networks. 

Aravind Srinivas – CEO of Perplexity, and Cal alum (Go Bears!)

The Nerds Have Taken Over

Now that I’m a father, I see the “revenge of the nerds” all over the place. At my youngsters’ colleges, most dad and mom are engineers, executives, knowledge scientists, medical doctors, cash managers, or entrepreneurs — alumni of IIT, MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, Duke, and the Ivies.

You don’t see most of the “cool youngsters” from highschool right here within the San Francisco Bay Space tech scene who performed varsity sports activities and dated round. Those that coasted on attraction or athletic capability had their run. IT’s the disciplined drawback solvers who constructed the programs the remainder of us rely on. They’re the captains now.

As an investor, I additionally need to put as a lot cash as potential into corporations run by tremendous nerds and crammed with the neatest staff. Rating poorly on Harvard’s subjective character take a look at to disclaim you admissions, regardless of stellar teachers? You are employed!

An American firm solely hiring a gaggle of various People is sweet in concept. However when IT involves constructing and investing in nice companies, capability all the time trumps nationality or identification. And the truth is, America doesn’t have a monopoly on expertise or capability.

Prime U.S. Corporations Hiring Staff On H-1B Visas

As capitalists, if CEOs can rent the neatest folks from all over the world for a fraction of what they’d pay an American, they are going to. For many leaders, earnings come earlier than patriotism. IT’s enterprise first, all the time.

Beneath are a number of the prime U.S. employers for H-1B visas. LCA stands for Labor Situation Software, the shape corporations should file with the U.S. Division of Labor (DOL) earlier than hiring or sponsoring an H-1B employee. These employers supply a number of the highest common salaries within the nation — and, not surprisingly, are among the many hardest locations to land a job.

And right here’s the factor: whereas Amazon laid off not less than 14,000 principally American staff in 2025, IT concurrently elevated its variety of H-1B hires from the yr earlier than. Should you’re the CEO and pays a superb H-1B worker a median of $149,000 as a substitute of $350,000 for an equally succesful American employee, you’re going to make that commerce each time till the federal government tries to cease you.

Now, as a rational investor, are you actually going to vote in opposition to decreasing prices and maximizing earnings? After all not. The overwhelming majority of shareholders will all the time assist profit-maximizing strikes in hopes of boosting their returns. Therefore, even for those who’re an American nerd absolutely able to competing with a talented overseas employee, you continue to may not get the job — or that promotion — merely since you price an excessive amount of.

You’ve received three choices: put money into the very corporations that reject you, already be rich sufficient that rejection solely bruises your ego, or be so well-liked and related that somebody in energy decides to provide you a shot.

Again in 2012, I made a decision to put money into all of the tech corporations that had rejected me after I left Finance. 13 years later, all of the nerds have been working for me ever since. Work more durable, you stunning geniuses!

The Poker Desk Epiphany

That reality hit me once more at a tech poker night time final weekend. Nothing has modified since I went to enterprise faculty from 2003-2006. And I do not assume something will ever change given we’re capitalists.

After placing my youngsters to mattress with my spouse, I confirmed up round 9 p.m. anticipating a relaxed recreation – perhaps a number of drinks and laughs. As a substitute, I walked into what felt like a graduate seminar on statistics and aggression at IIT. Roughly 70% have been overseas professionals working within the U.S. in excessive paying roles on non permanent visas.

To my left sat Akshay, a software program engineer who spent almost thirty minutes making an attempt to order espresso on an app despite the fact that the room was stocked with Crimson Bull and snacks. Each couple of minutes, Arvind — the participant on my proper — would remind him, “Akshay, IT’s on you.”

Twelve instances. Perhaps extra.

Akshay would nod, look at his playing cards, after which drift again to his telephone — evaluating costs, perhaps debugging code, or perhaps simply deep in thought. The entire thing was absurdly humorous and deeply symbolic. Complete focus, however in 5 completely different instructions, and fully socially unaware of his poor poker etiquette.

In the meantime, the sport itself was intense. Solely $1/$1 blinds, however pots swelling into the hundreds. A room filled with analytical, aggressive minds — engineers who wager chances like they have been working machine-learning simulations.

I noticed I used to be on the flawed desk. I’d come to unwind; they’d come to optimize and take my cash with a vengeance.

The Hand That Saved Me

After two and a half hours, I used to be barely breaking even and considering of calling IT an evening. Then got here the hand.

I seemed down at Ace-Queen of diamonds. After a number of limpers, I raised to $8. Three gamers referred to as. The flop: Ace of golf equipment, 3 of diamonds, 5 of diamonds. Candy! Prime pair, prime kicker, and the nut-flush draw. What a dream.

The small blind — Sondar, one other engineer — led out for $25 submit flop. I easy referred to as. One other participant referred to as behind and one other folded.

The flip got here the 7 of hearts. Sondar checked. I made a worth wager of $25 to see the place my opponents have been at. The third participant folded. Then Sondar check-raised to $75 complete.

That transfer received my consideration. IT smelled like two pair, perhaps a straight. I assumed for 25 seconds, stared at him like a samurai for 5. He stared again calmly. I referred to as.

The river: 7 of diamonds. Bingo. Nut flush.

Sondar checked once more. I paused, requested him how a lot he had left behind, and he reply with $130. I slid out $115, leaving him a small cushion. My purpose: make IT too tempting to not name as a result of even when he misplaced, he’d nonetheless have three $5 chips and a chair to combat once more.

“Ugh, I hate that river,” he stated, displaying the desk 4-6 of golf equipment for a straight.

He stared on the board, then at me. Two full minutes of wiggling in his seat, generally, together with his arms raised up and fingers behind his head. I didn’t transfer. However I cherished each second of IT as my very own coronary heart began beating faster.

Lastly, he pushed in his chips. Name.

I flipped over the flush. He groaned, nodded, and patted the felt — the common poker expression for “properly performed, you fortunate bastard.”

Obsession Might Be Even Extra Highly effective Than Smarts

A few fingers later, I cashed out for $680 after shopping for in for $350 and tossing $35 to the host for meals and drinks. I had survived the nerd gauntlet. Now IT was time to squeeze in 5 hours of sleep earlier than pickleball at 7 a.m., with frankly, extra nerds!

On the drive dwelling, I couldn’t cease considering: this desk was America in microcosm. A bunch of sensible, aggressive, math-driven folks — all chasing an edge, with a touch of obsession. In the meantime, right here I used to be, making an attempt to battle whereas by no means taking calculus.

I’ll come throughout as laid-back with Hawaiian vibes, however I’m obsessed too. I’ve logged hundreds of poker hours and watch poker movies for enjoyable every day. Additional, I frequently wager 30X – 300X greater within the inventory market than my buy-in, so IT‘s arduous to push me round at a $1/$1 or perhaps a $5/$10 desk. That night time, luck, blended with a hidden obsession of poker was my security web.

Should you get obsessive about one thing, you may ultimately get smarted sufficient to successfully compete in opposition to your opponents. Generally you win, generally you lose. That is life. However not less than you have a combating likelihood to win.

Turning into an American Nerd

To succeed in the present day, IT’s not sufficient to be charming, athletic, and even naturally sensible. It’s good to out-learn, out-analyze, and out-focus others.

In an interconnected world, you’re competing with sensible, hungry folks all over the place — a lot of whom deal with mastery the way in which Akshay handled that espresso order: with complete dedication, even when IT’s inconvenient.

For many years, America has thrived by welcoming formidable, proficient immigrants from everywhere in the world. That openness is a part of what makes this nation so dynamic.

However as world competitors intensifies (see the AI race struggle with China), these of us already right here can’t afford to coast. International locations with decrease per-capita incomes, like India and China, naturally produce people who find themselves pushed to grab each alternative they’ll discover. Whenever you’ve seen how arduous life could be elsewhere, IT’s simpler to understand — and maximize — what’s obtainable right here.

Over time, privileged People threat taking prosperity without any consideration. We get snug. However the remainder of the world is learning, grinding more durable, and catching up quick. The one actual approach to keep forward is to continue to learn, adapting, and obsessing over enchancment.

So if you wish to thrive in fashionable America, you or your youngsters must turn into an American nerd — curious, relentless, and deeply invested in your craft. As a result of whether or not IT’s on the poker desk, within the workplace, or in life, the neatest and most disciplined gamers often take the pot.

What do you assume — is America dropping its mental edge? What are you a nerd in? Have you ever observed sure professions or industries the place the “nerds” are clearly profitable? And for those who’re a guardian, are you encouraging your youngsters to embrace their interior nerd, or hoping they discover steadiness someplace in between?

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