I wasn’t all the time a private finance nerd, however I progressively turned one out of survival. That is my story — and my commentary over the previous 27 years — of why being an “American nerd” has change into extra necessary than ever if you wish to rise in your profession or achieve financial freedom sooner.
For context, I now not view the phrase nerd pejoratively as I did in highschool, after I was inspired to play sports activities, exercise, discover a girlfriend, and do nicely at school. I favored relationship an excessive amount of to be solid as a nerd. As a dad or mum now, I’d be thrilled if my youngsters was tremendous nerds. It may be the one method they will thrive and stay impartial in immediately’s ultra-competitive world.
No girlfriend or boyfriend in center or highschool? Superior! Extra time to review and fewer threat of being a teenage dad or mum with a more durable highway forward.
Not touring each weekend for membership soccer? Hooray! Extra money saved, fewer accidents, and extra time for studying an instrument, a language, or the humanities. In any case, solely about 2% of U.S. highschool athletes obtain any sort of athletic scholarship to play in faculty.
Solely have a few pals who’re additionally nerds? Fantastic. Problem one another to continue to learn and rising. With loving dad and mom and possibly a sibling, one good buddy is admittedly all you want anyway… to have sufficient trainers to beat any legendary raid in Pokémon Go!
As we speak, 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 essentially 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. In case you can’t sustain intellectually, it’s exhausting to remain afloat.
Once I was in public highschool in McLean, Virginia, I attempted to do nicely. I’d heard from an older pupil again in Kuala Lumpur throughout center faculty that top faculty grades mattered, so I took that to coronary heart.
However regardless of how exhausting 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 had been brutal graders. After studying some SAT prep books on the library, I could not break a 1,200 on the SAT both. Finally, I gave up making an attempt to be a nerd and centered on tennis and enjoyable as a substitute.
And boy, did I’ve enjoyable, maybe an excessive amount of of it. I obtained into hassle for shoplifting, preventing, and pulling dumb pranks that I really remorse. I’m sorry and I paid the worth. Fortunately, I nonetheless obtained into The Faculty of William & Mary, a superb 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 12 months in tuition.
With a second likelihood, I vowed to not mess issues up in faculty too.
My Fortunate Break
My large break got here from a mixture of luck, timing, and hustle. One Saturday, I got on a 6 a.m. charter bus for a Wall Street 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 corporations. Thanks largely to a recruiter named Kim Purkiss, who believed in me, I joined Goldman Sachs in 1999.
13 years on Wall Avenue taught me that intelligence is simply desk stakes. Being sensible counts for possibly 35%. The remainder is figure ethic, teamwork, attraction, and luck. Everybody is sensible – so the true edge comes from being obsessive about studying and execution.
Enter the Tremendous Nerds
Working on Wall Street uncovered me to loads of tremendous nerds from prime colleges. However what shocked me was what number of of them had 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, after I went to Berkeley for my MBA part-time (2003–2006), I used to be all of a sudden surrounded by largely tremendous nerds. Most labored in tech. About 65% had been engineers, and roughly half of these had come from India — most from the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT), the place the acceptance charge is round 1%.
Consider IIT as MIT or Caltech on steroids. Graduating from there requires each excessive intelligence and starvation. They had been scary sensible. These qualities now gasoline most of the leaders operating America’s largest tech corporations:
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” in every single place. At my youngsters’ colleges, most dad and mom are engineers, executives, knowledge scientists, docs, 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 means had their run. It’s the disciplined drawback solvers who constructed the techniques the remainder of us rely upon. They’re the captains now.
As an investor, I additionally need to put as a lot cash as doable into corporations run by tremendous nerds and full of the neatest staff. Rating poorly on Harvard’s subjective personality test to disclaim you admissions, regardless of stellar lecturers? You are employed!
An American firm solely hiring a gaggle of various Individuals is good in concept. However on the subject of constructing and investing in nice companies, means all the time trumps nationality or identity. And the fact is, America doesn’t have a monopoly on expertise or means.
High U.S. Firms 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 provide 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 no less than 14,000 largely American staff in 2025, it concurrently elevated its variety of H-1B hires from the 12 months earlier than. In case 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? In fact not. The overwhelming majority of shareholders will all the time help profit-maximizing strikes in hopes of boosting their returns. Therefore, even should you’re an American nerd absolutely able to competing with a talented international employee, you continue to may not get the job — or that promotion — merely since you price an excessive amount of.
You’ve obtained three choices: spend money on 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 present you a shot.
Again in 2012, I made a decision to spend money on 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 lovely geniuses!
The Poker Desk Epiphany
That reality hit me once more at a tech poker evening final weekend. Nothing has modified since I went to enterprise faculty from 2003-2006. And I do not suppose 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 – possibly a couple of drinks and laughs. As a substitute, I walked into what felt like a graduate seminar on statistics and aggression at IIT. Roughly 70% had been international 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 although 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 occasions. Perhaps extra.
Akshay would nod, look at his playing cards, after which drift again to his telephone — evaluating costs, possibly debugging code, or possibly simply deep in thought. The entire thing was absurdly humorous and deeply symbolic. Complete focus, however in 5 totally different instructions, and utterly socially unaware of his poor poker etiquette.
In the meantime, the sport itself was intense. Solely $1/$1 blinds, however pots swelling into the 1000’s. A room stuffed with analytical, aggressive minds — engineers who wager chances like they had been operating machine-learning simulations.
I noticed I used to be on the improper 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 appeared down at Ace-Queen of diamonds. After a couple of limpers, I raised to $8. Three gamers known as. The flop: Ace of golf equipment, 3 of diamonds, 5 of diamonds. Candy! High pair, prime kicker, and the nut-flush draw. What a dream.
The small blind — Sondar, one other engineer — led out for $25 put up flop. I easy known as. One other participant known as behind and one other folded.
The flip got here the 7 of hearts. Sondar checked. I made a price wager of $25 to see the place my opponents had been at. The third participant folded. Then Sondar check-raised to $75 whole.
That transfer obtained my consideration. It smelled like two pair, possibly a straight. I assumed for 25 seconds, stared at him like a samurai for 5. He stared again calmly. I known 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 aim: 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 struggle 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, along with his arms raised up and fingers behind his head. I didn’t transfer. However I beloved 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 “nicely performed, you fortunate bastard.”
Obsession Could 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 could come throughout as laid-back with Hawaiian vibes, however I’m obsessed too. I’ve logged 1000’s of poker hours and watch poker movies for enjoyable each day. Additional, I recurrently wager 30X – 300X greater within the inventory market than my buy-in, so it is exhausting to push me round at a $1/$1 or perhaps a $5/$10 desk. That evening, luck, blended with a hidden obsession of poker was my security internet.
In case you get obsessive about one thing, you will ultimately get smarted sufficient to successfully compete in opposition to your opponents. Generally you win, generally you lose. That is life. However no less than you have a preventing likelihood to win.
Changing into an American Nerd
To succeed immediately, it’s not sufficient to be charming, athletic, and even naturally sensible. It’s essential out-learn, out-analyze, and out-focus others.
In an interconnected world, you’re competing with good, hungry folks in every single place — lots of whom deal with mastery the best way Akshay handled that espresso order: with whole dedication, even when it’s inconvenient.
For many years, America has thrived by welcoming bold, 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 conflict 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 will discover. Whenever you’ve seen how exhausting life might be elsewhere, it’s simpler to understand — and maximize — what’s accessible right here.
Over time, privileged Individuals threat taking prosperity as a right. We get comfy. However the remainder of the world is finding out, grinding more durable, and catching up quick. The one actual technique 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 change 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 suppose — is America shedding 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 should you’re a dad or mum, are you encouraging your youngsters to embrace their interior nerd, or hoping they discover stability someplace in between?
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