I wasn’t always a personal finance junkie, but I grew into one out of survival. Here’s my story and my observations on why it’s more important than ever to be an “American Nerd” if you want to advance in your career or achieve financial freedom faster.
For context, I no longer look at the word bookworm Just like I did in high school, when I was encouraged to play sports, exercise, have a girlfriend, and do well in school. As a current parent, I would be excited if my kids turned out to be super nerdy. This may be the only way they can thrive and remain independent in today’s ultra-competitive world.
Don’t have a girlfriend or boyfriend in middle school or high school? Amazing! Having more time to study reduces the risk of a tough road for teenage parents.
Don’t you go to club football matches every weekend? yeah! Save more money, reduce injuries, and have more time to learn an instrument, language, or art. After all, only about 2% of American high school athletes receive any kind of athletic scholarship to play in college.
Today, nerds apparently rule the world. Let’s dig deeper!
average growth
Since 1999, I have lived in New York City and San Francisco—two of the most competitive and smart cities in America. They act like a magnet, attracting top students from elite universities to make their fortunes. Competition is ruthless. If you can’t keep up intellectually, it’s hard to sustain.
When I was in public high school in McLean, Virginia, I desperately wanted to get straight A’s. I heard in middle school from a senior student in Kuala Lumpur that high school grades were important, so I took it to heart.
But no matter how hard I studied, I couldn’t crack the code. My GPA is 3.65, with a B+/A- average. Spanish verb conjugations tripped me up, advanced math was pointless, and science teachers were cruel graders. After reading some SAT preparation books in the library, my SAT score failed to break 1,200 points. Eventually, I gave up on trying to be a nerd and focused on tennis and having fun.
Boy, did I have fun. Maybe having too much fun. I got in trouble for shoplifting, getting into fights, and pulling stupid pranks. Thankfully, I still got into William & Mary. I knew my family couldn’t afford to send me to a private college, so I stayed at a state college.
With this second chance, I vowed not to mess up in college.
my lucky break
My big break came from a combination of luck, timing, and hard work. One Saturday, I took the 6 a.m. bus to attend a recruiting event on Wall Street.
None of my classmates showed up, so after waiting 30 minutes, the driver drove me to a random shack, then switched the bus to a Lincoln Towncar and drove me two hours from Williamsburg to Washington, DC. There I got interviews with several large companies. I joined Goldman Sachs in 1999, thanks in large part to a recruiter named Kim Purkiss who believed in me.
Thirteen years on Wall Street taught me that intelligence is just table stakes. Maybe 35% is smart. The rest is work ethic, teamwork, charisma and luck. Everyone is smart – so the real advantage comes from Obsessed About learning and executing.
Enter Super Nerd
Working on Wall Street exposed me to a lot of super nerdy people from top schools. But to my surprise, many of them are also well-rounded, especially in sports.
My direct colleagues at Goldman Sachs were both smart and strong: My boss played football as a linebacker at Dartmouth, and the other played linebacker at Penn State. Later, my immediate boss at Credit Suisse also played football at Cal and was president of his fraternity, Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE). This guy oozes charisma. We were very happy to host our customers.
However, when I went to Berkeley part-time to pursue my MBA (2003-2006), I was suddenly surrounded by mostly super nerds. Most people work in technology. About 65% are engineers, about half of whom are from India—mostly from the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), which have an acceptance rate of about 1%.
Think of Indian Institute of Technology as an enhanced version of MIT or Caltech. Graduating from there requires extreme intelligence and hunger. They are terrifyingly smart. These qualities now power the leaders of many of America’s largest technology companies—Google, Microsoft, Adobe, IBM, YouTube, and more.
Nerds have taken over
Now that I’m a father, I see “Revenge of the Nerds” everywhere. At my children’s school, most of the parents are engineers, executives, data scientists, doctors, money managers, or entrepreneurs—alumni from IIT, MIT, Stanford, Berkeley, Duke, and the Ivy League.
In the Bay Area tech scene, you don’t see a lot of the “cool kids” in high school who play varsity sports and date. Those who succeeded through charisma or athletic ability have failed. It’s those trained problem solvers who build the systems the rest of us rely on. They are captains now.
As an investor, I also want to put as much money as possible into companies that are run by super nerds and have the smartest employees. Of course, it would be nice if most of these companies were American. DEI is also good in a way.
But when it comes to building and investing in great businesses, ability always trumps nationality or identity. The reality is that the United States does not have a monopoly on talent or ability.
Poker Table Epiphany
This fact hit me again during last weekend’s Tech Poker Night.
After putting my kids and my wife to bed, I showed up around 9pm expecting a relaxing game – maybe a few drinks and a laugh. Instead, I walked into what felt like a graduate seminar on statistics and offense. About 70% are foreign professionals working in high-paying jobs in the United States on temporary visas.
To my left sits Akshay, a software engineer who spent nearly thirty minutes trying to order coffee on an app despite a table covered in Red Bull and snacks. Every few minutes, Arvind, the player on my right, would remind him, “Akshay, it’s your turn.”
ten times. Maybe more.
Akshay would nod, glance at his card, and then go back to his phone—comparing prices, maybe debugging code, or just lost in thought. The whole thing is hilarious and deeply symbolic. Preoccupied, but in 17 different directions, and completely socially unaware of his poor poker etiquette.
At the same time, the game itself intense. The blinds are only $1/$1, but the pot swells into the thousands. The room was filled with analytical, driven minds—engineers betting on probabilities like they were running machine learning simulations.
I realized I was at the wrong table. I’m here to relax; they’re here to optimize and take my money with a vengeance.
save my hand
After two and a half hours, I was barely breaking even and figured that was it for the night. Then came the hands.
I looked down diamond ace queen. After a few calls, I raised to $8. Three players called. Flop: Ace of clubs, 3 of diamonds, 5 of diamonds. Sweet! Top pair, top kicker, and nut flush draws. What a dream.
The small blind – Sondar, another engineer from India – led $25 post-flop. I made the call without any problems. Another player follows and the other player folds.
It’s your turn Hearts 7. Sundar checked. I placed a $25 value bet to see where my opponent was. The third player folds. Sondar then check-raised to a total of $75.
This action caught my attention. Smells like two pairs, maybe a straight. I thought for 25 seconds and stared at him like an assassin for 5 seconds. He stared back calmly. I called.
river: 7 diamonds. Bingo. Nut rinse.
Sundar checked again. I stopped and asked him how much money he had left, and he responded that it was $130. I slipped out $115leaving a small cushion for him. My goal: Make it easy for him not to call because even if he loses, he still has three $5 chips and a chair to fight again.
“Well, I hate that river,” he said, showing the table 4-6 Club To be straight.
He stared at the blackboard, then at me. Sometimes he would squirm in his seat for a full two minutes, arms raised, hands behind his head. I didn’t move. But I loved every second of it as my own heart began to beat faster.
Finally, he put in his chips. call.
I turned the flush over. He groaned, nodded, and patted the felt—a universal poker expression that meant “Well done, you lucky bastard.”
Obsession may be more powerful than wisdom
After a few hands, I bought in for $350, threw $35 to the host for food and drink, and cashed out for $680. I survived the nerd test. Now’s the time to squeeze in five hours of sleep before playing pickleball at 7 a.m.
As I drove home, I kept thinking: This table is the epitome of America. A group of smart, competitive, math-driven people—all driven by an obsession to chase advantage. Meanwhile, here I am, trying to fight but never learning calculus.
I may come across as laid-back, but I’m also obsessed. I have logged thousands of hours of poker time and watch poker videos daily for fun. Additionally, my bets in the stock market are typically 30 to 300 times larger than my buy-ins, so it’s hard to sway me at a $1/$1 or even a $5/$10 table. Luck, combined with a hidden obsession with poker, was my safety net that night.
If you become obsessed with something, you will eventually become smart enough to compete effectively with your opponents. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. this is life. But at least you have a chance to win.
Become an American Nerd
To be successful today, it’s not enough to be charismatic, athletic or even naturally smart. you need to beyond learning, external analysisand Out of focus Others.
In an interconnected world, you’re competing against talented, hungry people around the world—many of whom approach mastery the same way Akshay approaches a coffee order: fully committed, even when it’s inconvenient.
For decades, the United States has prospered by welcoming ambitious and talented immigrants from around the world. This openness is part of what makes this country so vibrant.
But as global competition intensifies, those of us who are already here can no longer sit back and wait. Countries with lower per capita incomes such as India and China naturally produce people who are willing to take advantage of every opportunity. When you understand how difficult life is elsewhere, it becomes easier to appreciate and make the most of what it has to offer.
Over time, privileged Americans may take prosperity for granted. We became very comfortable. But the rest of the world is learning, working harder, and catching up quickly. The only real way to stay ahead of the curve is to continually learn, adapt, and commit to improvement.
So if you want to thrive in modern America, you or your child needs to be an American nerd—curious, persistent, and deeply invested in your craft. Because whether at the poker table, in the office, or in life, the smartest, most disciplined players usually win the pot.
Do you think the United States is losing its intellectual edge? Have you ever noticed certain careers or industries where “nerds” clearly win? If you were a parent, would you encourage your children to embrace their inner nerd, or would you want them to find a balance between the two?
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