How A Laptop Changed My Life

It was the gateway to a math addiction and ground zero for compound growth in serious upskilling.

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A crappy $200 laptop changed my life the summer after 10th grade.

Learned calculus through a decently scaffolded free online course and then moved onto self-studying the rest of a math major via MIT OpenCourseWare.

That was the gateway to a math addiction and ground zero for compound growth in serious upskilling. Been compounding harder and harder ever since.

That’s why I’m always talking about serious upskilling, educational acceleration, talent development, building strong foundations, doing it as early as possible, acquiring alien-level technical chops.

It’s because I was not supposed to land anywhere near where I am today.

There is not a single person in my family who is mathematical, technical, scientific, or academic. The sole contribution of my high school counselor to my college applications was misspelling the word “Calculus” as “Calculas” on my transcript.

But that’s the power of serious upskilling.

It takes you from where you’re supposed to go and moves you towards where you have the potential to go.

You build yourself an engine instead of passively floating wherever the default current of life’s river takes you.

Most people, and especially most kids, have no idea this is possible.

They don’t know that you can skill-equip yourself an Iron Man suit and fly off the default path that life sets before you.

So I’m trying to get the word out.

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