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 academics have 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 an alternative.
I wasn’t all the time a private finance nerd, however I steadily turned one out of survival. That is my story — and my commentary over the previous 27 years — of why being an “American nerd” has turn into extra necessary than ever if you wish to rise in your profession or obtain monetary 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 effectively in class. I preferred relationship an excessive amount of to be forged as a nerd. As a father or mother now, I’d be thrilled if my youngsters become tremendous nerds. It is perhaps the one approach they will thrive and stay unbiased in right this moment’s ultra-competitive world.
No girlfriend or boyfriend in center or highschool? Superior! Extra time to review and fewer threat of being a teenage father or mother with a harder highway 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 form of athletic scholarship to play in faculty.
Solely have a few mates who’re additionally nerds? Great. Problem one another to continue to learn and rising. With loving mother and father and possibly a sibling, one good pal is basically all you want anyway… to have sufficient trainers to beat any legendary raid in Pokémon Go!
At this time, 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. If you happen to can’t sustain intellectually, it’s arduous to remain afloat.
Once I was in public highschool in McLean, Virginia, I attempted to do effectively. I’d heard from an older scholar again in Kuala Lumpur throughout center college that top college grades mattered, so I took that to coronary heart.
And boy, did I’ve enjoyable, maybe an excessive amount of of it. I acquired into bother for shoplifting, preventing, and pulling dumb pranks that I actually remorse. I’m sorry and I paid the worth. Fortunately, I nonetheless acquired into The Faculty of William & Mary, college, however not fairly elite. I additionally knew my household could not comfortably afford sending me to a personal college, so I stayed in-state at $2,800 a 12 months in tuition.
With a second probability, I vowed to not mess issues up in faculty too. Neither must you. Prime universities comparable to Columbia has roughly 40% of its scholar physique consisting of worldwide college students. American spots are slowly getting crowded out.
My Fortunate Break
My massive break got here from a mixture of luck, timing, and hustle. One Saturday, I acquired 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 corporations. 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 good counts for possibly 35%. The remainder is figure ethic, teamwork, appeal, and luck. Everybody is sensible – 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 faculties. However what shocked me was what number of of them have been additionally well-rounded, particularly when it got here to sports activities.
My rapid 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 instantly surrounded by largely 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 Know-how (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 have been scary good. These qualities now gas lots of the leaders working America’s greatest 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” all over the place. At my youngsters’ faculties, most mother and father are engineers, executives, information scientists, medical doctors, cash managers, or entrepreneurs — alumni of IIT, MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, Duke, and the Ivies.
You don’t see lots 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 appeal or athletic potential had their run. It’s the disciplined drawback solvers who constructed the methods the remainder of us depend upon. They’re the captains now.
As an investor, I additionally wish to put as a lot cash as doable into firms run by tremendous nerds and full of the neatest staff. Rating poorly on Harvard’s subjective persona take a look at to disclaim you admissions, regardless of stellar lecturers? You are employed!
An American firm solely hiring a bunch of various Individuals is sweet in principle. However in terms of constructing and investing in nice companies, potential all the time trumps nationality or id. And the fact is, America doesn’t have a monopoly on expertise or potential.
Prime U.S. Firms Hiring Workers On H-1B Visas
As capitalists, if CEOs can rent the neatest individuals from world wide for a fraction of what they’d pay an American, they’ll. 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 Utility, the shape firms 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 at the least 14,000 largely American staff in 2025, it concurrently elevated its variety of H-1B hires from the 12 months earlier than. If you happen to’re the CEO and will pay a superb H-1B worker a median of $149,000 as an alternative 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 lowering 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 for those who’re an American nerd totally 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 acquired three choices: spend money on the very firms that reject you, already be rich sufficient that rejection solely bruises your ego, or be so well-liked and linked 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 firms that had rejected me after I left finance. 13 years later, all of the nerds have been working for me ever since. Work tougher, you stunning 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 college 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 sport – possibly just a few 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 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. Possibly 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 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 possibilities like they have been working machine-learning simulations.
I spotted 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 pondering of calling it an evening. Then got here the hand.
I seemed down at Ace-Queen of diamonds. After just a few 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 publish flop. I clean 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 whole.
That transfer acquired my consideration. It smelled like two pair, possibly a straight. I believed 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 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 battle 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 arms 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 “effectively performed, you fortunate bastard.”
Obsession Might Be Even Extra Highly effective Than Smarts
A few arms 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 pondering: this desk was America in microcosm. A bunch of good, aggressive, math-driven individuals — 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 hundreds of poker hours and watch poker movies for enjoyable every day. Additional, I repeatedly wager 30X – 300X larger within the inventory market than my buy-in, so it is arduous 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.
If you happen to get obsessive about one thing, you will finally get good sufficient to successfully compete in opposition to your opponents. Generally you win, generally you lose. That is life. However at the least you have a preventing probability to win.
Changing into an American Nerd
To succeed right this moment, it’s not sufficient to be charming, athletic, and even naturally good. You have to out-learn, out-analyze, and out-focus others.
In an interconnected world, you’re competing with good, hungry individuals all over the place — a lot 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. Nations 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 arduous life could be elsewhere, it’s simpler to understand — and maximize — what’s accessible right here.
Over time, privileged Individuals threat taking prosperity without any consideration. We get comfy. However the remainder of the world is learning, grinding tougher, 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 kids have to 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 normally 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 for those who’re a father or mother, are you encouraging your youngsters to embrace their internal nerd, or hoping they discover stability someplace in between?
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