I wasn’t at all times a private finance nerd, however I regularly 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 change into extra necessary 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 nicely at school. 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 children become tremendous nerds. It is perhaps the one manner they’ll thrive and stay impartial in at the moment’s ultra-competitive world.
No girlfriend or boyfriend in center or highschool? Superior! Extra time to check and fewer danger of being a teenage father or mother with a harder street forward.
Not touring each weekend for membership soccer? Hooray! More cash 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 sort of athletic scholarship to play in school.
Solely have a few pals who’re additionally nerds? Great. Problem one another to continue learning and rising. With loving mother and father and possibly a sibling, one good pal is admittedly all you want anyway… to have sufficient trainers to beat any legendary raid in Pokémon Go!
At present, 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 high college students from elite universities who come to make their fortunes. The competitors is relentless. For those who can’t sustain intellectually, it’s onerous to remain afloat.
After 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 college that top college grades mattered, so I took that to coronary heart.
However regardless of how onerous 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. Ultimately, I gave up attempting 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 bought into bother for shoplifting, preventing, and pulling dumb pranks that I actually remorse. I’m sorry and I paid the value. Fortunately, I nonetheless bought into The Faculty of William & Mary, college, however not elite. I 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 likelihood, I vowed to not mess issues up in school too. Neither must you, as high universities corresponding to Columbia has roughly 40% of its pupil physique consisting of worldwide college students.
My Fortunate Break
My huge break got here from a mixture of luck, timing, and hustle. One Saturday, I bought 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 motive 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 possibly 35%. The remaining is figure ethic, teamwork, appeal, and luck. Everybody is sensible – so the actual 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 high faculties. However what stunned 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.
Nonetheless, once 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% have been engineers, and roughly half of these had come from India — most from the Indian Institutes of Expertise (IIT), the place the acceptance fee 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 gas lots of the leaders working America’s greatest 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” in every single place. At my children’ 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 children” 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 capability had their run. It’s the disciplined downside solvers who constructed the programs the remainder of us rely upon. 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 full of the neatest staff. Rating poorly on Harvard’s subjective character check to disclaim you admissions, regardless of stellar lecturers? You are employed!
An American firm solely hiring a bunch of numerous People is sweet in principle. However in terms of constructing and investing in nice companies, capability at all times trumps nationality or id. And the fact is, America doesn’t have a monopoly on expertise or capability.
High U.S. Corporations Hiring Workers On H-1B Visas
As capitalists, if CEOs can rent the neatest folks from world wide for a fraction of what they’d pay an American, they may. For many leaders, earnings come earlier than patriotism. It’s enterprise first, at all times.
Under are a few of the high U.S. employers for H-1B visas. LCA stands for Labor Situation Utility, 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 few 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. For those who’re the CEO and will pay a superb H-1B worker a mean 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 towards decreasing prices and maximizing earnings? In fact not. The overwhelming majority of shareholders will at all times assist profit-maximizing strikes in hopes of boosting their returns. Therefore, even in the event you’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 value an excessive amount of.
You’ve bought 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 linked 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 lovely 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 college from 2003-2006. And I do not suppose something will ever change given we’re capitalists.
After placing my children to mattress with my spouse, I confirmed up round 9 p.m. anticipating a relaxed sport – 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% have been overseas professionals working within the U.S. in excessive paying roles on short-term visas.
To my left sat Akshay, a software program engineer who spent almost thirty minutes attempting to order espresso on an app although the room was stocked with Pink 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. Whole 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 guess 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 couple of limpers, I raised to $8. Three gamers referred to as. The flop: Ace of golf equipment, 3 of diamonds, 5 of diamonds. Candy! High pair, high 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 guess of $25 to see the place my opponents have been at. The third participant folded. Then Sondar check-raised to $75 complete.
That transfer bought 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 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 struggle once more.
“Ugh, I hate that river,” he mentioned, 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 “nicely 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 house, 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, attempting 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 commonly guess 30X – 300X larger within the inventory market than my buy-in, so it is onerous 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.
For those who get obsessive about one thing, you may ultimately get smarted sufficient to successfully compete towards your opponents. Typically you win, generally you lose. That is life. However at the least you have a preventing likelihood to win.
Turning into an American Nerd
To succeed at the moment, it’s not sufficient to be charming, athletic, and even naturally sensible. You must out-learn, out-analyze, and out-focus others.
In an interconnected world, you’re competing with sensible, hungry folks in every single 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, gifted immigrants from everywhere in the world. That openness is a part of what makes this nation so dynamic.
However as international competitors intensifies (see the AI race warfare 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. Once you’ve seen how onerous life might be elsewhere, it’s simpler to understand — and maximize — what’s out there right here.
Over time, privileged People danger taking prosperity with no consideration. We get snug. However the remainder of the world is learning, grinding more durable, and catching up quick. The one actual option to keep forward is to continue learning, adapting, and obsessing over enchancment.
So if you wish to thrive in fashionable America, you or your youngsters have to 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 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 in the event you’re a father or mother, are you encouraging your children to embrace their interior nerd, or hoping they discover stability someplace in between?
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