I wasn’t all the time a private finance nerd, however I steadily grew to become one out of survival. That is my story — and my remark over the previous 27 years — of why being an “American nerd” has change into extra vital 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, once I was inspired to play sports activities, exercise, discover a girlfriend, and do effectively at school. I preferred relationship an excessive amount of to be forged as a nerd. As a guardian now, I’d be thrilled if my youngsters become tremendous nerds. It could be the one manner they’ll 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 guardian with a more durable 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 spite of everything, solely about 2% of U.S. highschool athletes obtain any type of athletic scholarship to play in school.
Solely have a few associates who’re additionally nerds? Fantastic. Problem one another to continue learning and rising. With loving mother and father and perhaps a sibling, one good good friend is admittedly all you want anyway… to have sufficient trainers to beat any legendary raid in Pokémon Go!
Right this moment, 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. When you can’t sustain intellectually, it’s onerous 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 faculty that top faculty grades mattered, so I took that to coronary heart.
However irrespective 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 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 attempting to be a nerd and targeted on tennis and enjoyable as an alternative.
And boy, did I’ve enjoyable, maybe an excessive amount of of it. I obtained into hassle for shoplifting, combating, and pulling dumb pranks that I really remorse. I’m sorry and I paid the worth. Fortunately, I nonetheless obtained into The School 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 probability, I vowed to not mess issues up in school too. Neither must you, as prime universities resembling Columbia has roughly 40% of its scholar 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 obtained on a 6 a.m. constitution bus for a Wall Avenue 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 Avenue taught me that intelligence is simply desk stakes. Being good counts for perhaps 35%. The remainder is figure ethic, teamwork, appeal, and luck. Everybody is wise – so the actual edge comes from being obsessive about studying and execution.
Enter the Tremendous Nerds
Engaged on Wall Avenue uncovered me to loads of tremendous nerds from prime 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 fast 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 purchasers.
Nevertheless, once I went to Berkeley for my MBA part-time (2003–2006), I used to be all of the 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 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 gasoline lots of the leaders operating 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” all over the place. At my youngsters’ faculties, most mother and father are engineers, executives, knowledge scientists, docs, 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 means 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 wish to put as a lot cash as attainable into firms run by tremendous nerds and crammed with the neatest staff. Rating poorly on Harvard’s subjective persona check to disclaim you admissions, regardless of stellar lecturers? You are employed!
An American firm solely hiring a gaggle of various People is sweet in principle. However in relation to constructing and investing in nice companies, means all the time trumps nationality or identification. And the truth is, America doesn’t have a monopoly on expertise or means.
High U.S. Corporations Hiring Workers On H-1B Visas
As capitalists, if CEOs can rent the neatest folks from around the globe for a fraction of what they’d pay an American, they’ll. For many leaders, income 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 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 a minimum of 14,000 largely American staff in 2025, it concurrently elevated its variety of H-1B hires from the yr earlier than. When you’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 income? After all not. The overwhelming majority of shareholders will all the time help profit-maximizing strikes in hopes of boosting their returns. Therefore, even when 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 value an excessive amount of.
You’ve obtained three choices: put money into the very firms 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 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 night time 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 sport – perhaps 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 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 practically thirty minutes attempting to order espresso on an app although the room was stocked with Purple 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 guess possibilities like they have 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 seemed down at Ace-Queen of diamonds. After just a few 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 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 obtained 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 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 objective: 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, exhibiting 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 arms behind his head. I didn’t transfer. However I liked 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 Could 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 house, I couldn’t cease considering: this desk was America in microcosm. A bunch of good, 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 usually guess 30X – 300X greater 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, combined with a hidden obsession of poker was my security internet.
When you get obsessive about one thing, you may finally get smarted sufficient to successfully compete in opposition to your opponents. Generally you win, generally you lose. That is life. However a minimum of you have a combating probability to win.
Turning into an American Nerd
To succeed right this moment, it’s not sufficient to be charming, athletic, and even naturally good. That you must out-learn, out-analyze, and out-focus others.
In an interconnected world, you’re competing with sensible, hungry folks all over the place — lots 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 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’ll discover. If you’ve seen how onerous life could be elsewhere, it’s simpler to understand — and maximize — what’s out there right here.
Over time, privileged People threat taking prosperity with no 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 learning, 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 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 successful? And when you’re a guardian, are you encouraging your youngsters to embrace their inside nerd, or hoping they discover stability someplace in between?
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