# [Letter] Advice for High School #2

> [This](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/vHR64sZESzqn8vc37/letter-advice-for-high-school) is amazing. Thank you, so, so much. I'll start coding in Hy with [Vim](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/ioGf4LHid42mCK3SK/vim). I'll start doing weekly blogs once my tennis season ends (three weeks from now), and I likely wouldn't have the guts to start if it wasn't for your advice. On the general high school advice; it's invaluable. I look forward to reading the books you've recommended. As a sidenote; I love books, and read as many as I can; any books that you'd recommend, on any subjects? I've started using Anki on a daily basis; the main bottleneck right now is that I'm making too few cards/day, but that can be addressed with more dedicated time, I think. *Starting Strength* is what my personal strength training needed. Meditation will be a useful intervention; I thank you for the guidance. I read *How to...* a year or so ago, and my social skills have improved significantly as a result; definitely a good recommendation. Luckily, I don't have any especially angry people in my life, but [your Anger post](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/wGfswz45GsMysvGQM/anger) serves as an excellent life guide. Do you know of any rationality/recommended programs near [redacted]? I've failed to find anyone near my intellect at my school/any other program I've done, and there aren't any rationality meetups nearby other than the [redacted] one, which I plan to go to, whenever possible. Again, thank you so much.
>
> Yours truly,
>
> [redacted]

Dear [redacted],

Don't worry about having too few cards in your Anki. Reviews pile up fast. Sustainability is more important than intensity. If you need more cards you can go to [Ankiweb](https://ankiweb.net/) and download a frequency-based vocabulary deck for the foreign language of your choice.

# Finding someone near your intellect…

Young people are sorted by geography. The average IQ at a typical high school is 100. Going to college bumps it up by a standard deviation to 115. An MD gets it a little higher to 120.

[![](https://social-quotient.info/sq.4mg.com/IQ-jobs.gif)](http://social-quotient.info/sq.4mg.com/IQ-jobs.htm)

Enrolling in the hardest college major brings the IQ distribution a full two standard deviations above average to 130 which equals the average IQ of a science PhD. If you have an IQ of at least 145 (three standard deviations above the mean) then no undergraduate degree is sufficient. 

| College Undergraduate Major          |  IQ |
|--------------------------------------|-----|
| Physics & Astronomy                  | 133 |
| Mathematical Sciences                | 130 |
| Philosophy                           | 129 |
| Materials Engineering                | 129 |
| Economics                            | 128 |
| Chemical Engineering                 | 128 |
| Other Engineering                    | 128 |
| Mechanical Engineering               | 126 |
| Engineering                          | 126 |
| Electrical Engineering               | 126 |
| Physical Sciences                    | 125 |
| Banking & Finance                    | 125 |
| Other Humanities & Art               | 124 |
| Chemistry                            | 124 |
| Computer & Information Science       | 124 |
| Civil Engineering                    | 124 |
| Industrial Engineering               | 123 |
| Religion & Theory                    | 121 |
| Earth, Atmosphere & Marine Science   | 121 |
| Biological Sciences                  | 121 |
| English Language & Literature        | 120 |
| Humanities & Arts                    | 120 |
| Art History, Theory, Critical Theory | 120 |
| Political Science                    | 120 |
| Foreign languages & Literature       | 119 |
| Anthropology & Archaeology           | 119 |
| History                              | 119 |
| Architecture                         | 118 |
| Library & Archival Sciences          | 117 |
| Other Natural Sciences               | 117 |
| Social Sciences                      | 115 |
| Agriculture                          | 115 |
| Arts-Performance & Studio            | 114 |
| Life Sciences                        | 114 |
| Sociology                            | 114 |
| Business                             | 114 |
| Psychology                           | 113 |
| Communications                       | 111 |
| Curriculum & Instruction             | 111 |
| Health & Medical Sciences            | 111 |
| Business Admin & Management          | 111 |
| Other Social Science                 | 110 |
| Education                            | 110 |
| Accounting                           | 110 |
| Evaluation & Research                | 109 |
| Public Administration                | 109 |
| Other Education                      | 109 |
| Elementary Education                 | 108 |
| Administration                       | 107 |
| Home Economics                       | 106 |
| Student Counseling                   | 105 |
| Early Childhood Education            | 104 |
| Social Work                          | 103 |

[An eminent theoretical physicist is at least 160.](https://infoproc.blogspot.com/2008/07/annals-of-psychometry-iqs-of-eminent.html) An IQ of 160 makes you 1 in 32,000. An IQ of 175 makes you 1 in 1.5 million. There are 200 such people in the entire United States—and that includes adults. If you have an IQ of 175 then there might be three equally-smart teenagers your age in the entire country. How do [such people](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/kXSETKZ3X9oidMozA/the-level-above-mine) find each other?

When I worked at a particle physics laboratory it was the first time I felt like I was interacting with my own species. But the physicists didn't feel [alive](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/CKpByWmsZ8WmpHtYa/competent-elites). My colleagues weren't Albert Einstein and Richard Feynman. The first time I felt like I was talking to cognitive equals was at the Y-Combinator interview pool when I met a pair of Nigerians (this is not a joke) who were attempting to monopolize the entire African financial system.

The second time was when I met someone on Less Wrong who runs his own hedge fund.

If you are four or more standard deviations above average then you won't find equals at your high school. You won't find them at teenage chess tournaments or teenage music tournaments either because success there is driven by parents—training outweighs innate talent. Maybe try math or debate tournaments?

I don't live near you so I can't recommend anything specific to your region. I have never been to an IRL rationality event. Here is general advice for meeting smart people. Try it out to discover what works for you. Discard strategies that don't work.
- Start your own rationality meetup.
- Find an existing group of people that does quantitative finance or similar.
- Attend public scientific lectures at your local research university.
- Create art (blog, YouTube, etc.) and post it online.
- **Do awesome stuff.** For real. Not just reading about it.

The best way to live among the monkeys is to assume a leadership role for yourself. Organize events. Get groups of people to do novel things. Make stuff happen. You may be surprised by how much it is possible to accomplish [out of sheer nerve](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/kJrpCJshBoaY6YS4L/overconfidence). Especially when your competition is the ordinary high school students who happen to live in [redacted].

The most important thing for you right now is to try all sorts of different things. Don't wait until you feel ready to live your life. You never will. Just do it. Failure is fine, as long as you recover. Don't hurt other people. Don't cause significant financial damage. Don't injure yourself. Don't throw away years of your life. Mere embarrassment doesn't matter. It is best you decondition yourself ASAP.

# More Book Recommendations

I have excluded all books mentioned in the previous letter. I have excluded math, science and engineering textbooks too along with drawing manuals. Nothing has prerequisites. Listening instead of reading is fine.

Books with extraordinary claims I have not verified are marked with a dagger †. Books I have not read cover-to-cover at the time of writing this letter are marked with a double dagger ‡.

## Autobiographies
- *Arabian Sands* and *The Marsh Arabs* by Wilfred Thesiger
- *Goodbye, Darkness: A Memoir of the Pacific War* by William Mangester
- *Silent Running: My Years on A World War II Attack Submarine* James F. Calvert
- *"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!": Adventures of A Curious Character* by Richard P. Feynman
- *The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr* by Martin Luther King Jr.
- *Built, Not Born: A Self-Made Billionaire's No-Nonsense Guide for Entrepreneurs* by Tom Golisano and Mike Wicks
- *Consider This: Moments in My Writing Life after Which Everything Was Different* by Chuck Palahniuk
- *Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly* by Anthony Bourdain
- *Monster: The Autobiography of An L.A. Gang Member* by Sanyika Shakur
- *Under and Alone: The True Story of the Undercover Agent Who Infiltrated America's Most Violent Outlaw Motorcycle Gang* by William Queen
- *Priceless: How I Went Undercover to Rescue the World's Stolen Treasures* by Robert K. Wittman and John Shiffman
- †*Catch Me If You Can* by Frank Abagnale
- *One L: The Turbulent True Story of A First Year at Harvard Law School* by Scott Turow
- *The Plant Messiah: Adventures in Search of the World's Rarest Species* by Carlos Magdalena
- *iWoz: Computer Geek to Cult Icon: How I Invented the Personal Computer, Co-founded Apple, and Had Fun Doing It* by Steve Wozniak
- *Just for Fun: The Story of an Accidental Revolutionary* by Linus Torvalds and David Diamond
- *Down the Rabbit Hole: Curious Adventures and Cautionary Tales of a Former Playboy Bunny* by Holly Madison
- *How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life* by Scott Adams
- *The Actor's Life: A Survival Guide* by Jenna Fischer
- *Moonwalking With Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything* by Joshua Foer
- *Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia* by Elizabeth Gilbert
- *The Audacity to Win: The Inside Story and Lessons of Barack Obama's Historic Victory* by David Plouffe
- *A Promised Land* by Barack Obama

## Biographies
- ‡*Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World* by Jack Weatherford
- *Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman* by Robert K. Massie
- ‡*Napoleon: A Life* by Andrew Roberts
- *Steve Jobs* by Walter Isaacson

## History
- [These three books about China](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/rfaAFWjujYuytsLGy/chinese-history)
- [*Destiny Disrupted*](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/DRXW6CrHwkH4rfuGi/book-review-destiny-disrupted) by Tamin Ansary
- ‡*A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century* by Barbara W. Tuchman
- †*1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus* and *1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created* by Charles C. Mann
- ‡*Napoleon's Wars: An International History, 1803-1815* by Charles J. Esdaile,
- *The Most Powerful Idea in the World: A Story of Steam, Industry, and Invention* by William Rosen
- ‡*The Rising Sun: The Decline and Fall of the Japanese Empire, 1936-1945* by John Toland
- *The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany* by William L. Shirer
- *Auschwitz: A New History* by Laurence Rees
- ‡*Africa's World War: Congo, the Rwandan Genocide, and the Making of a Continental Catastrophe* by Gerard Prunier
- *The Wrong Enemy: America in Afghanistan, 2001-2014* by Carlotta Gall

## Ethnographies
- *Nisa: The Life and Words of a !Kung Woman* by Marjorie Shostak
- †*Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes: Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle* by Daniel L. Everett
- [*The Chrysanthemum and the Sword: Patterns of Japanese Culture*](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/WDAP2E5ZSe94yWDhL/book-review-the-chrysanthemum-and-the-sword) by Ruth Benedict
- *Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity* by Katherine Boo

## Cyber
- *The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy From Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography* by Simon Singh
- *Exploding the Phone* by Phil Lapsley 
- *The Soul of A New Machine* by Tracy Kidder
- *The Art of Intrusion: The Real Stories Behind the Exploits of Hackers, Intruders, & Deceivers* by Kevin D. Mitnick
- *Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game* by Michael Lewis
- *Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six MIT Students Who Took Vegas for Millions* by Ben Mezrich
- *The Quants: How a New Breed of Math Whizzes Conquered Wall Street and Nearly Destroyed It* by Scott Patterson

## Physics
- *A Brief History of Time* and *The Universe in a Nutshell* by Stephen Hawking
- *Quantum Generations: A History of Physics in the Twentieth Century* by Helge Kragh

## Biology
- *Paleontology: A Brief History of Life* by Ian Tattersall
- †[*The Vital Question: Energy, Evolution, and the Origins of Complex Life* by Nick Lane](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/aFE9NkjheoxgTHhmM/book-review-the-vital-question-by-nick-lane)
- *March of the Microbes: Sighting the Unseen* John L. Ingraham
- *The Nature of Plants: An Introduction to How Plants Work* by Craig N. Huegel
- *Botany for Gardeners* by Brian Capon
- ‡*Remarkable Plants That Shape Our World* by Helen Bynum and William Bynum
- *Understanding the Brain: From Cells to Behavior to Cognition* by John E. Dowling
- ‡*The Variety of Life: A Survey and A Celebration of All the Creatures That Have Ever Lived* by Colin Tudge

## Sociology & Economics
- †*Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality* by Christopher Ryan
- *Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen* by Christopher McDougall
- *Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies* by Jared Diamond
- *An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations* by Adam Smith
- *Roadside MBA: Backroad Lessons for Entrepreneurs, Executives, and Small Business Owners* by Michael Mazzeo
- *The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life* by Charles Murray and Richard J. Herrnstein
- *Human Diversity: The Biology of Gender, Race, and Class* by Charles Murray
- [*Class: A Guide Through the American Status System*](https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/book-review-fussell-on-class) by Paul Fussell
- *Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa* by Dambisa Moyo
- *Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty* by Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo
- *Out of Poverty: What Works When Traditional Approaches Fail* by Paul Polak
- *Fooled by Randomness* and *Antifragile* by Nassim Nicholas Taleb 
- *The Innovator's Dilemma* by Clayton Christensen.

## Psychology
- [*Don't Shoot the Dog: The New Art of Teaching and Training*](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/Cf2xxC3Yx9g6w7yXN/notes-from-don-t-shoot-the-dog) and *Karen Pryor on Behavior* by Karen Pryor
- *Through the Language Glass: Why [the World Looks Different in Other Languages](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/DJJPWZAtwcuEj5WQc/blue-is-arbitrary-1)* by Guy Deutsch
- †*Spy the Lie* and †*Get the Truth* by Philip Houston
- *Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior* by Temple Grandin

### Altered States of Consciousness
- *The Art of Happiness* by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Dr. Howard Cutler
- *Mindfulness in Plain English* by Bhante Gunarantana 
- *Hardcore Zen: Punk Rock, Monster Movies and the Truth About Reality* by Brad Warner
- *Zen Flesh, Zen Bones* by Paul Reps
- [*Altered Traits: Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain, and Body* by Daniel Goleman and Richard J. Davidson](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/tvuLWPJXjvoQfpbSG/book-review-altered-traits-1)
- [*Saints and Psychopaths*](http://www.buddhistische-gesellschaft-berlin.de/downloads/saints-and-psychopaths.pdf) by William L. Hamilton
- *A Field Guide to Lucid Dreaming: Mastering the Art of Oneironautics* by Dylan Tuccillo

## Modern Art
- *Seven Days in the Art World* by Sarah Thornton
- *The $12 Million Stuffed Shark: The Curious Economics of Contemporary Art* by Donald N. Thompson
- *The Last Leonardo: The Secret Lives of the World's Most Expensive Painting* by Ben Lewis

## [Science Fiction](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/mtH6xczWzKJrTnsqS/science-fiction)
- 1940s-1950s | *Foundation* and *I, Robot* by Isaac Asimov
- 1954 | *I Am Legend* by Richard Matheson
- 1963 | *Planet of the Apes* by Pierre Boulle
- 1966 | *The Moon is a Harsh Mistress* by Robert A. Heinlein
- 1974 | *The Forever War* by Joe Haldeman
- 1974 | *The Mote in God's Eye* by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
- 1979 | *The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy* by Douglas Adams
- 1984 | *Neuromancer* by Willian Gibson
- 1985 | *The Postman* by David Brin
- 1985, 1999 | *Ender's Game* and *Ender's Shadow* by Orson Scott Card
- 1989 | *On My Way to Paradise* by Dave Wolverton
- 1989 | *Hyperion* by Dan Simmons
- 1992 | *Red Mars* by Kim Stanley Robinson 
- 1992, 1995, 2015 | *Snow Crash*, *The Diamond Age* and *Seveneves* by Neal Stephenson
- 1993 | *Parable of the Sower* by Octavia E. Butler
- 2006 | *World War Z* by Max Brooks
- 2008 | *The Hunger Games* by Suzanne Collins
- 2008, 2013 | *Saturn's Children* and *Neptune's Brood* by Charles Stross
- 2011, February | [*The Martian*](https://youtu.be/Ue4PCI0NamI) by Andy Weir
- 2011, August | *Ready Player One* by Ernest Cline
- 2013, 2014, 2015 | *The Imperial Radch Trilogy* by Ann Leckie
- 2015-2020 | [*There is No Antimemetics Division*](http://www.scpwiki.com/antimemetics-division-hub) by qntm

## Fantasy
- 1943 | *The Little Prince* by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
- 1976 | *Interview with the Vampire* by Anne Rice
- 1993 | *The Giver* by Lois Lowry
- 1995-2000 | *His Dark Materials* by Philip Pullman
- 1997-2007 | *Harry Potter* by J.K. Rowling
- 2001 | *The Magicians' Guild* by Trudi Canavan 
- 2009 | *Escape from Hell* by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
- 2010 | *The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms* by N.K. Jemisin
- 2010, 2012 | *The Magicians* and *The Magician King* by Lev Grossman
- 2010-2015 | [*Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality*](https://www.lesswrong.com/hpmor) by Eliezer Yudkowsky
- 2020-2021 | [*Luna Lovegood and the Chamber of Secrets*](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/zb3hWt99i9Fm93KPq/luna-lovegood-and-the-chamber-of-secrets-part-1-1) by me

## Fiction, Other
- ‡1813 | *Pride and Prejudice* by Jane Austen
- 1899 | *Heart of Darkness* by Joseph Conrad
- 1973 | *The Princess Bride* by William Goldman
- 1996-present | any two novels by [Chuck Palahniuk](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/3CxbpKnpN4BHrwoXn/hell-is-wasted-on-the-evil)
- 1998 | *The Poisonwood Bible* by Barbara Kingsolver
- 2012 | *The Fault in Our Stars* by John Green

## Classics
- Late Spring and Autumn Period (5th Century BC) | *Sun Tzu's Original Art of War: Special Bilingual Edition* by Sun Zi and Andrew W. Zieger
- Tang Dynasty | [《花非花》](http://www.chinese-poems.com/bo6.html) by 白居易
- Tang Dynasty | [《静夜思》](http://www.chinese-poems.com/lb4.html) by 李白
- Edo period | ‡*Sky Above, Great Wind: The Life and Poetry of Zen Master Ryokan* by Kazuaki Tanahashi

## Oral
- *Folktales from Iraq* by C. G. Campbell
- *Norse Mythology* by Neil Gaiman

## Miscellaneous
- [*Citizenship in a Republic*](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/Kudjqr8apNwTQmoLq/citizenship-in-a-republic) by Theodore Roosevelt
- *Guerrilla Warfare* by Che Guevara
- ‡*The Amateur Magicians Handbook* by Henry Hay
-  ††*Sorcerer's Apprentice* by Tahir Shah
- *Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values* by Robert M. Pirsig 
- *Fluent in 3 Months: The Radical New Way That Anyone, at Any Age, Can Learn to Speak Any Language From Anywhere in the World* by Benny Lewis
- *The 4-Hour Workweek* by Tim Ferris

## Podcasts
- [*The History of Rome*](https://thehistoryofrome.typepad.com/)
- ‡[*History of Japan*](http://isaacmeyer.net/)
- ‡*The Eastern Border*
- [*Writing Excuses*](https://writingexcuses.com/)
- [*Darknet Diaries*](https://darknetdiaries.com/)

## YouTube
- Extra History's series on [the Sengoku Jidai](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDsdkoln59A&list=PLhyKYa0YJ_5A649vEQk37316BH8FsaU24), [Admiral Yi](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ieaDfD_h6s&list=PLhyKYa0YJ_5C45ST5eQr8Sn3vWc7YgLBf), [the South Sea Bubble](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1kndKWJKB8&list=PLhyKYa0YJ_5CwbTgovbJJhy1LyAaDqStr), [The First Crusade](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIs5B2U7US0&list=PLhyKYa0YJ_5BH8o5Uk2FI_sHekdS6uIkH) and [Theodora](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_2E0RxVHH4&list=PLhyKYa0YJ_5Cfgs7L6XFvcQE_TpyyYiEI)
- Brandon Sanderson's [creative writing lectures](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cf-qdZ7GbA&list=PLSH_xM-KC3Zv-79sVZTTj-YA6IAqh8qeQ) at BYU

Lastly, check out [*Code Geass*](https://youtu.be/xh_SoTWBVHU).

![](https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/www.lsusr.com/lesswrong/kallen.jpg)

Yours truly,

Lsusr