Advice for students

• Be challenged. Seek material at the level and pace appropriate for you. Learn with people who aren’t all dumber than you.
• If you’re motivated to learn or build something, do it. If you’re not motivated, don’t force yourself.
• Don’t be afraid of the unknown. Just because a topic is advanced or is in an unfamiliar field doesn’t mean it’s difficult to learn; go for it.
• Some things can’t be learned from textbooks because the textbooks don’t exist, e.g. decision theory.
• Some concepts take a while to really absorb, possibly years. In the words of John von Neumann, “Young man, in mathematics you don’t understand things. You just get used to them.”
• There’s nothing wrong with funding your studies by borrowing against future earnings as long as you’re not overpaying for your education. Internships are great too.
• Don’t do undergrad if you don’t need to. Subjects like mathematics, computer science, and economics can be learned conveniently and effectively using books, videos, and other resources from the internet. If you need an academic credential, write a paper with a professor in your city and get it published. The mentorship will be valuable and with just publications and reference letters applying to grad school is an option (see e.g. link).
• If you formally take a course, ideally learn the material by yourself beforehand (paradoxical as that sounds).
• Don’t go to a bad grad school. At the graduate level, low-status schools have poor funding, low research activity, and few students.
• Get a thesis supervisor who is unambiguously an expert in the field.
• Attend economics seminars because they’re a blast.