TheNigreriaNigtmare
Subhuman
- Joined
- Jun 20, 2025
- Posts
- 214
- Reputation
- 164
Yo. If you're 16, 17, 18 reading this, the raw timeline's shifted. You're not cooked—you just adapt, or you run this playbook on your kids instead. This is an education maxxing plan I did/am doing I'm giving it away because it’s working for me.
I'm not a guru. I'm a first-gen with immigrant parents, a PhD at 20, in law school paid for by my firm, and a Porsche Taycan in the garage. I didn’t actually sacrifice much. I have a subhuman face. I was fat growing up. I'm ND. I didn't have friends to miss, parties to skip, or a social life to mourn. Made the sacrifice free. If you're already isolated, awkward, uncomfortable in your own skin—congratulations. You have a head start. The plan was easier for me because I had nothing to lose.
Let's talk about how you actually do this.
The Chemical Stack
Your brain is the CPU. You cannot run this schedule on Starbucks and willpower. You need to overclock it.
What worked:
• Vyvanse: The king. Prescribed. 12-16 hour focus windows. This is how you do 80-hour lab weeks and still have gas for LSAT prep. All hail Vyvanse. Seriously.
• Modafinil: When Vyvanse tolerance hits or you need a clean, robotic focus day without the amphetamine edge. 200mg in the morning. Good for grinding through textbooks and writing papers.
• Vortioxetine (Trintellix): Secret weapon. It's an antidepressant but has pro-cognitive effects—better working memory, faster processing, less brain fog. I wasn't depressed. I used it for the nootropic effect and possible depression. Smooths out stimulant rough edges and keeps executive function sharp when you're sleep-deprived.
What didn't work:
• Semax: Everyone on the nootropics subreddit hypes this nasal spray. I tried it. Felt absolutely nothing. Waste of money. Skip it.
The stack: Vyvanse for heavy lifting, Modafinil for off-days, Trintellix as the baseline. Sleep 6 hours minimum. Lift 4x a week or your body will break.
Get Jacked. Seriously.
You're going to spend 12 hours a day in a lab or library. Your body will turn to mush if you let it. Do not let it.
Lift weights 4x a week minimum. You have time. If you're efficient with AI scheduling and study techniques, you have 45 minutes a day for the gym. This isn't about health—it's about status signaling.
There's an Oxford study showing men with PhDs are perceived as significantly more attractive. That study is real. But here's the catch: you are the only attractive dude getting a PhD. Most PhD students are skinny-fat, hunched over, wearing the same hoodie for three days. If you are jacked, well-groomed, and carry yourself like a man instead of a grad student, you are a unicorn.
I have a subhuman face. I am not handsome. But I was getting attention, dates, and status purely because I was jacked, had a doctorate at 20, and carried money. Your face matters less than you think if your body, bank account, and credentials are stacked. The gym is the highest ROI statusmaxing tool available to poor people. Do not skip it.
Phase 1: Accelerated High School (Age 13-15)
The Move-Back Strategy
I moved back to Nigeria. Secondary school there is 3 years. I hit 12th-grade level at 15, transferred credits back to Texas, finished my diploma before 15, and exploited the Top 10% auto-admit rule. If your family is from India, the UK, Nigeria, Ghana, the Caribbean—anywhere with a 3-year secondary system or O/A-Levels—use it. You save 1-2 years instantly.
If you can't move back, test out. Take placement exams. CLEP everything. Homeschool if the bureaucracy fights you. Your age is your weapon.
Why Texas? Top 10% Rule (now Top 6% for UT). Finish near the top of your class, auto-admit to any Texas public university. If your state doesn't have this, move. I'm serious. One year of rent in Texas is cheaper than out-of-state tuition for four years.
The AP Cheat Sheet (Don't Waste Your Time)
I took every transferable AP that mattered. Here is the real breakdown:
Math:
• Calc AB: Covers Calc 1. 3-4 credits.
• Calc BC: Covers Calc 1 AND Calc 2. This is the most efficient AP. If you score a 4 or 5, you skip two semesters of university math. Do not take AB then BC. Just take BC. Self-study it if your school is slow.
Physics:
• Physics C: Mechanics + E&M: Covers Calc-based Physics 1 and 2. Engineering programs require the calculus-based version. AP Physics 1 and 2 (algebra-based) are useless for engineering majors. Do not take them. Take Physics C only.
Chemistry:
• AP Chem: Covers Chem 1 and sometimes Chem 2 for engineers. Take it.
English:
• AP Lang: Covers English Composition 1. Usually required.
• AP Lit: Covers English Composition 2 or a general humanities credit. Take both.
History/Gov:
• APUSH: Covers American History. Core requirement.
• AP Gov: Covers Government/Political Science. Easy, required for most degrees.
• AP World: Sometimes transfers as general history credit. Lower priority.
Computer Science:
• AP CSA: Covers Intro to Programming 1. If you're ECE, this is free credits and an easy A.
Economics:
• AP Micro + Macro: Covers Econ 1 and 2. Knocks out core social science credits.
What NOT to take:
• AP Biology: Useless unless you're pre-med. Doesn't transfer to engineering.
• AP Environmental Science: A joke. No credit anywhere that matters.
• AP Psychology: Easy but usually doesn't transfer to engineering cores. Waste of a slot.
• AP Human Geography: Absolutely useless. Do not.
The Rule: Only take an AP if it knocks out a required core class for your major or gives you 3+ transferable credits. If it just counts as "general elective," you wasted $100 and 40 hours.
Minors are useless. Do not minor in anything. A minor is a participation trophy. It adds zero salary, zero status, and slows your graduation. If you want to study philosophy, read books on the weekend. Your transcript minor in "Business" or "Math" means nothing to employers or grad schools. Focus on GPA, research, and graduating fast.
Phase 2: Leverage AI Like Your Life Depends On It
If you're starting now, you have a massive advantage. Use AI to compress time.
For Learning/Studying:
• ChatGPT (o1/o3/4o): Use this for math and engineering problem sets. Do not just copy answers. Paste the problem, ask it to explain the concept, then solve it yourself. Use it to generate practice problems for Calc, Physics, and Circuits.
• Claude: Better for writing, research papers, and patent drafts. More coherent long-form.
• Wolfram Alpha + ChatGPT: For verifying calculus and differential equations. Essential.
For Time Management:
• Reclaim.ai or Motion: AI-powered calendar apps. Input your classes, research hours, gym, and study blocks. The AI agent automatically reschedules when life happens. You do not waste mental energy planning your day. The AI blocks time for you.
• Notion AI: Use this to summarize research papers, generate Anki flashcards from your notes, and track your PhD progress.
For Research:
• Elicit: AI research assistant. Finds papers, summarizes findings, helps you write lit reviews. I wish I had this during my PhD.
• Consensus: Answers yes/no research questions with actual citations.
For LSAT/Law:
• LSAT Demon or Khan Academy: Use AI-adaptive prep. The algorithm figures out your weak spots and drills them.
Study Techniques That Actually Work:
1. Active Recall: Do not re-read. Close the book and explain the concept out loud. If you can't, you don't know it.
2. Anki: Spaced repetition. Make cards for every formula, every legal standard, every semiconductor concept. 30 minutes a day. Forever.
3. The Feynman Technique: Teach the material to an imaginary idiot. If you get stuck, that's your knowledge gap.
4. Time Blocking (AI-assisted): 90-minute deep work blocks. No phone. No tabs. Use your AI calendar to enforce this. One block = one lecture's worth of progress.
5. Pomodoro (Modified): 50 minutes on, 10 minutes off. Not the classic 25/5. Engineering and law require longer focus cycles.
----
Phase 3: University — ECE on Crack (Age 15-18)
Community College Hack: Take every 1000/2000-level class at CC. English, History, Gov, Econ, even Calc if the credits transfer. It is 1/3 the price and the professors actually teach instead of outsourcing to TAs.
Summer is not a break. Summer is a semester. 12-15 credits every single summer. You graduate in 3 years or less.
Research > Internships: I interned at Optiver. It was cool. But for this specific path—patent law—research is better. You need a professor who will write you a letter saying you're the best undergrad they've had in 10 years. You need publications. Patent firms care about technical depth, not your "leadership experience" at some corporate internship.
How to get research as a 15-year-old freshman:
• Email 30 professors. Not 3. Thirty.
• Subject line: "Undergrad Researcher Available — [Specific Skill]"
• Offer to work for free for one semester. After that, demand paid RA.
• Show up to lab every day. Become indispensable. Run the equipment. Manage the younger grad students.
Phase 4: The PhD — Semiconductor Design (Age 18-21)
Why a PhD? Because "Dr." is a permanent status upgrade. Because patent law firms pay PhDs more. Because you can say "I'm a doctor" at 21 and watch people's brains break.
Pick the advisor like you're picking a CEO:
• Do they graduate PhDs in 3-4 years? Check their alumni page.
• Do they publish 5+ papers a year?
• Do they have industry money (NSF, DARPA, semiconductor companies)?
I chose semiconductors/VLSI because AI chips are the new oil. The patent space is exploding. Pick a hot field.
Funding: If you're good, they pay you. Stipend + tuition. You won't be rich but you won't be in debt.
The 3-Year PhD:
• Come in with credits from undergrad research.
• Pick a narrow, publishable project. Not "revolutionize physics." Just "optimize this one transistor design."
• Work 80-100 hours a week. No weekends. No holidays.
• Publish 4 first-author papers. Dissertation in 4 months.
• Done.
Phase 5: Why Not Quant?
I thought about FPGA work at trading firms. Here's the truth: quant is a young man's game. Burnout by 30. Replaced by cheaper PhDs. Patent law gets better with age. The triple threat (Dr. + Engineer + Lawyer) is recession-proof. You can go private sector, USPTO, in-house at Nvidia, or start your own firm.
Phase 6: Patent Bar + LSAT + Law School (The Real Flex)
LSAT: Start studying Year 2 of undergrad. Not after graduation. You want 170+. With a PhD and high GPA, law schools throw money at you.
Patent Bar: Take it before law school. B.S. in ECE qualifies you. Pass it, become a Patent Agent.
The Law School Hack Nobody Talks About
Here's where my path diverges from the standard "suffer through 3 years of law school" narrative. If you pick the optimal classes only, you do not waste time on useless electives.
The Optimal Law School Classes (Take These, Skip Everything Else):
1L (Required — You Have No Choice):
• Civil Procedure
• Contracts
• Torts
• Property
• Criminal Law
• Constitutional Law
• Legal Writing/Research
2L/3L (The Only Classes That Matter for Patent Law):
• Patent Law (obviously)
• Intellectual Property Survey
• Copyright Law
• Trademark Law
• IP Licensing/Transactions
• Antitrust Law (critical for tech IP)
• Federal Courts (useful for litigation exposure)
• Corporations/Business Associations (you will draft for companies)
• Tax Law (if you plan to start your own firm later)
Skip These Completely:
• Environmental Law
• International Human Rights
• Family Law
• Employment Law
• Any seminar with "Critical" in the title
• Any elective that does not touch IP, business, or litigation
If your law school lets you, take Patent Law and IP classes pass/fail if you already have the job locked in. Your firm does not care about your law school GPA. They care that you pass the bar and keep billing.
The 30-40 Hour Work Week (The Ultimate Cheat)
Most people think night law school means working 9-5 then going to class. Wrong.
My firm makes me work 30-40 hours a week while I'm in law school. They still pay my full Patent Agent salary ($90K-$101K). Why? Because they want to retain me. Because a PhD-level patent agent who is becoming a lawyer is worth more than the hours lost. Because they know I will bill $400+/hour once I pass the bar.
Law school is free. The firm covers tuition. I pick only the optimal classes. I work reduced hours. I still lift 4x a week. I am not suffering. I am being paid to become a lawyer.
If your firm won't do this, find one that will. IP boutiques in Texas, California, and DC are desperate for technical talent. Negotiate. You have a PhD in semiconductors. You have leverage. Use it.
Phase 7: Wife Selection & Status Maximization
By the time you're 20-21, you are a Doctor, an Engineer, a Patent Agent making six figures, and on track to be a Lawyer. You are jacked. You have money. You are the only person in your PhD program who looks like he belongs in a nightclub instead of a basement.
This is the optimal window to pick your future wife.
If you like Asian women—and many of us do—this is where you strike. The Oxford study about PhDs being perceived as more attractive is real, but it only works if you are not a stereotype. Most Asian women in STEM programs, med school, or professional circles are surrounded by soft, passive men. Then you walk in: jacked, confident, Dr. before 21, earning more than their dad, with a Porsche key in your pocket.
You do not need to be handsome. I have a subhuman face. I am telling you from experience: credentials + muscle + money + confidence overrides facial aesthetics in mate selection. I was pulling women who would not have looked at me twice when I was a fat, ugly teenager.
Why lock in a wife now?
• You are at peak value relative to your age group.
• Women in professional programs (med school, dental school, engineering) are high-quality, educated, and come from good families.
• Marrying before 25, while your income is rising, locks in a partner who watched you build instead of one who only sees the finished product.
• A professional wife (doctor, dentist, engineer) adds a second income stream. Dual-income households at $400K+ are how you build generational wealth fast.
Where to meet them:
• University events (even as a grad student, you have access to undergrad and grad social circles)
• Professional networking events
• Church/temple if you are religious
• Gym (seriously—the gym at a major university or tech hub is full of professional women)
Do not waste time on dating apps as your primary strategy. Your in-person status signal is too strong to waste on algorithms.
Phase 8: Income Stack & The Porsche
Salary at graduation: $200K+ as a patent attorney.
But I bought a Porsche Taycan at 20. How?
Side income. I co-created a social media blocking app. It blocks distractions, tracks screen time, and sells premium subscriptions to parents and students. App income is variable but a decent consumer app with ads + premium + B2B partnerships can pull $5K-$30K/month. If you have equity and it grows, your stake adds to your net worth.
Between my reduced Patent Agent schedule and app revenue, I had the cash flow to finance the Taycan. The app also adds "tech founder" to the resume, which stacks on Dr./Lawyer/Engineer.
Why the app matters: Do not rely on W-2. Your PhD gives you the technical skills to build real products. Build something. Ship it. Even if it only makes $3K/month, that's $36K/year on top of your salary.
How to Run This for Your Kids
If you're 25 reading this and thinking "I missed the window," run it on your children:
1. Teach them to read at 3. Math at 4. Get them ahead of the curve before kindergarten.
2. Keep dual citizenship/residency. If your family abroad has a shorter school system, use it.
3. Move to Texas. Top 6% auto-admit is the best deal in American higher education.
4. Pay for APs and dual enrollment. $100 per AP exam vs. $1,500 per college credit.
5. Push research, not sports. A published 15-year-old is rarer than a varsity athlete.
6. Ensure U.S. citizenship. Patent bar requires it.
7. Be the enforcer. Your kid will hate you at 16. They will thank you at 22.
----
Why This Works in the AI Age
AI is eating coders, paralegals, and analysts. It is not eating:
• PhD-level chip designers.
• Registered patent attorneys with technical degrees.
• People with three barriers to entry (Dr., J.D., Engineer).
You are not a cog. You are a strategic asset.
Final Word
This is hard as f***. I had advantages—higher-than-average IQ, immigrant parents who didn't accept excuses, good timing. But the real advantage was that I was already invisible. I was fat. I was ugly. I was ND. I had no friends to miss, no parties to skip, no social life to mourn. While other kids were crying about missing prom, I was already three years ahead of them. The loneliness that destroys normal people was just Tuesday for me.
If that sounds like you, this path is yours. The Porsche is nice. The status is nice. But the real win is being 21 with options, a jacked body, a locked-in wife, and the knowledge that you built it all while everyone else was playing catch-up.
Lock in.
This definitely isn’t the best path but it’s the one I took so I have the most info on it so I thought I would share. If you have any questions I can answer them let me know.
I'm not a guru. I'm a first-gen with immigrant parents, a PhD at 20, in law school paid for by my firm, and a Porsche Taycan in the garage. I didn’t actually sacrifice much. I have a subhuman face. I was fat growing up. I'm ND. I didn't have friends to miss, parties to skip, or a social life to mourn. Made the sacrifice free. If you're already isolated, awkward, uncomfortable in your own skin—congratulations. You have a head start. The plan was easier for me because I had nothing to lose.
Let's talk about how you actually do this.
The Chemical Stack
Your brain is the CPU. You cannot run this schedule on Starbucks and willpower. You need to overclock it.
What worked:
• Vyvanse: The king. Prescribed. 12-16 hour focus windows. This is how you do 80-hour lab weeks and still have gas for LSAT prep. All hail Vyvanse. Seriously.
• Modafinil: When Vyvanse tolerance hits or you need a clean, robotic focus day without the amphetamine edge. 200mg in the morning. Good for grinding through textbooks and writing papers.
• Vortioxetine (Trintellix): Secret weapon. It's an antidepressant but has pro-cognitive effects—better working memory, faster processing, less brain fog. I wasn't depressed. I used it for the nootropic effect and possible depression. Smooths out stimulant rough edges and keeps executive function sharp when you're sleep-deprived.
What didn't work:
• Semax: Everyone on the nootropics subreddit hypes this nasal spray. I tried it. Felt absolutely nothing. Waste of money. Skip it.
The stack: Vyvanse for heavy lifting, Modafinil for off-days, Trintellix as the baseline. Sleep 6 hours minimum. Lift 4x a week or your body will break.
Get Jacked. Seriously.
You're going to spend 12 hours a day in a lab or library. Your body will turn to mush if you let it. Do not let it.
Lift weights 4x a week minimum. You have time. If you're efficient with AI scheduling and study techniques, you have 45 minutes a day for the gym. This isn't about health—it's about status signaling.
There's an Oxford study showing men with PhDs are perceived as significantly more attractive. That study is real. But here's the catch: you are the only attractive dude getting a PhD. Most PhD students are skinny-fat, hunched over, wearing the same hoodie for three days. If you are jacked, well-groomed, and carry yourself like a man instead of a grad student, you are a unicorn.
I have a subhuman face. I am not handsome. But I was getting attention, dates, and status purely because I was jacked, had a doctorate at 20, and carried money. Your face matters less than you think if your body, bank account, and credentials are stacked. The gym is the highest ROI statusmaxing tool available to poor people. Do not skip it.
Phase 1: Accelerated High School (Age 13-15)
The Move-Back Strategy
I moved back to Nigeria. Secondary school there is 3 years. I hit 12th-grade level at 15, transferred credits back to Texas, finished my diploma before 15, and exploited the Top 10% auto-admit rule. If your family is from India, the UK, Nigeria, Ghana, the Caribbean—anywhere with a 3-year secondary system or O/A-Levels—use it. You save 1-2 years instantly.
If you can't move back, test out. Take placement exams. CLEP everything. Homeschool if the bureaucracy fights you. Your age is your weapon.
Why Texas? Top 10% Rule (now Top 6% for UT). Finish near the top of your class, auto-admit to any Texas public university. If your state doesn't have this, move. I'm serious. One year of rent in Texas is cheaper than out-of-state tuition for four years.
The AP Cheat Sheet (Don't Waste Your Time)
I took every transferable AP that mattered. Here is the real breakdown:
Math:
• Calc AB: Covers Calc 1. 3-4 credits.
• Calc BC: Covers Calc 1 AND Calc 2. This is the most efficient AP. If you score a 4 or 5, you skip two semesters of university math. Do not take AB then BC. Just take BC. Self-study it if your school is slow.
Physics:
• Physics C: Mechanics + E&M: Covers Calc-based Physics 1 and 2. Engineering programs require the calculus-based version. AP Physics 1 and 2 (algebra-based) are useless for engineering majors. Do not take them. Take Physics C only.
Chemistry:
• AP Chem: Covers Chem 1 and sometimes Chem 2 for engineers. Take it.
English:
• AP Lang: Covers English Composition 1. Usually required.
• AP Lit: Covers English Composition 2 or a general humanities credit. Take both.
History/Gov:
• APUSH: Covers American History. Core requirement.
• AP Gov: Covers Government/Political Science. Easy, required for most degrees.
• AP World: Sometimes transfers as general history credit. Lower priority.
Computer Science:
• AP CSA: Covers Intro to Programming 1. If you're ECE, this is free credits and an easy A.
Economics:
• AP Micro + Macro: Covers Econ 1 and 2. Knocks out core social science credits.
What NOT to take:
• AP Biology: Useless unless you're pre-med. Doesn't transfer to engineering.
• AP Environmental Science: A joke. No credit anywhere that matters.
• AP Psychology: Easy but usually doesn't transfer to engineering cores. Waste of a slot.
• AP Human Geography: Absolutely useless. Do not.
The Rule: Only take an AP if it knocks out a required core class for your major or gives you 3+ transferable credits. If it just counts as "general elective," you wasted $100 and 40 hours.
Minors are useless. Do not minor in anything. A minor is a participation trophy. It adds zero salary, zero status, and slows your graduation. If you want to study philosophy, read books on the weekend. Your transcript minor in "Business" or "Math" means nothing to employers or grad schools. Focus on GPA, research, and graduating fast.
Phase 2: Leverage AI Like Your Life Depends On It
If you're starting now, you have a massive advantage. Use AI to compress time.
For Learning/Studying:
• ChatGPT (o1/o3/4o): Use this for math and engineering problem sets. Do not just copy answers. Paste the problem, ask it to explain the concept, then solve it yourself. Use it to generate practice problems for Calc, Physics, and Circuits.
• Claude: Better for writing, research papers, and patent drafts. More coherent long-form.
• Wolfram Alpha + ChatGPT: For verifying calculus and differential equations. Essential.
For Time Management:
• Reclaim.ai or Motion: AI-powered calendar apps. Input your classes, research hours, gym, and study blocks. The AI agent automatically reschedules when life happens. You do not waste mental energy planning your day. The AI blocks time for you.
• Notion AI: Use this to summarize research papers, generate Anki flashcards from your notes, and track your PhD progress.
For Research:
• Elicit: AI research assistant. Finds papers, summarizes findings, helps you write lit reviews. I wish I had this during my PhD.
• Consensus: Answers yes/no research questions with actual citations.
For LSAT/Law:
• LSAT Demon or Khan Academy: Use AI-adaptive prep. The algorithm figures out your weak spots and drills them.
Study Techniques That Actually Work:
1. Active Recall: Do not re-read. Close the book and explain the concept out loud. If you can't, you don't know it.
2. Anki: Spaced repetition. Make cards for every formula, every legal standard, every semiconductor concept. 30 minutes a day. Forever.
3. The Feynman Technique: Teach the material to an imaginary idiot. If you get stuck, that's your knowledge gap.
4. Time Blocking (AI-assisted): 90-minute deep work blocks. No phone. No tabs. Use your AI calendar to enforce this. One block = one lecture's worth of progress.
5. Pomodoro (Modified): 50 minutes on, 10 minutes off. Not the classic 25/5. Engineering and law require longer focus cycles.
----
Phase 3: University — ECE on Crack (Age 15-18)
Community College Hack: Take every 1000/2000-level class at CC. English, History, Gov, Econ, even Calc if the credits transfer. It is 1/3 the price and the professors actually teach instead of outsourcing to TAs.
Summer is not a break. Summer is a semester. 12-15 credits every single summer. You graduate in 3 years or less.
Research > Internships: I interned at Optiver. It was cool. But for this specific path—patent law—research is better. You need a professor who will write you a letter saying you're the best undergrad they've had in 10 years. You need publications. Patent firms care about technical depth, not your "leadership experience" at some corporate internship.
How to get research as a 15-year-old freshman:
• Email 30 professors. Not 3. Thirty.
• Subject line: "Undergrad Researcher Available — [Specific Skill]"
• Offer to work for free for one semester. After that, demand paid RA.
• Show up to lab every day. Become indispensable. Run the equipment. Manage the younger grad students.
Phase 4: The PhD — Semiconductor Design (Age 18-21)
Why a PhD? Because "Dr." is a permanent status upgrade. Because patent law firms pay PhDs more. Because you can say "I'm a doctor" at 21 and watch people's brains break.
Pick the advisor like you're picking a CEO:
• Do they graduate PhDs in 3-4 years? Check their alumni page.
• Do they publish 5+ papers a year?
• Do they have industry money (NSF, DARPA, semiconductor companies)?
I chose semiconductors/VLSI because AI chips are the new oil. The patent space is exploding. Pick a hot field.
Funding: If you're good, they pay you. Stipend + tuition. You won't be rich but you won't be in debt.
The 3-Year PhD:
• Come in with credits from undergrad research.
• Pick a narrow, publishable project. Not "revolutionize physics." Just "optimize this one transistor design."
• Work 80-100 hours a week. No weekends. No holidays.
• Publish 4 first-author papers. Dissertation in 4 months.
• Done.
Phase 5: Why Not Quant?
I thought about FPGA work at trading firms. Here's the truth: quant is a young man's game. Burnout by 30. Replaced by cheaper PhDs. Patent law gets better with age. The triple threat (Dr. + Engineer + Lawyer) is recession-proof. You can go private sector, USPTO, in-house at Nvidia, or start your own firm.
Phase 6: Patent Bar + LSAT + Law School (The Real Flex)
LSAT: Start studying Year 2 of undergrad. Not after graduation. You want 170+. With a PhD and high GPA, law schools throw money at you.
Patent Bar: Take it before law school. B.S. in ECE qualifies you. Pass it, become a Patent Agent.
The Law School Hack Nobody Talks About
Here's where my path diverges from the standard "suffer through 3 years of law school" narrative. If you pick the optimal classes only, you do not waste time on useless electives.
The Optimal Law School Classes (Take These, Skip Everything Else):
1L (Required — You Have No Choice):
• Civil Procedure
• Contracts
• Torts
• Property
• Criminal Law
• Constitutional Law
• Legal Writing/Research
2L/3L (The Only Classes That Matter for Patent Law):
• Patent Law (obviously)
• Intellectual Property Survey
• Copyright Law
• Trademark Law
• IP Licensing/Transactions
• Antitrust Law (critical for tech IP)
• Federal Courts (useful for litigation exposure)
• Corporations/Business Associations (you will draft for companies)
• Tax Law (if you plan to start your own firm later)
Skip These Completely:
• Environmental Law
• International Human Rights
• Family Law
• Employment Law
• Any seminar with "Critical" in the title
• Any elective that does not touch IP, business, or litigation
If your law school lets you, take Patent Law and IP classes pass/fail if you already have the job locked in. Your firm does not care about your law school GPA. They care that you pass the bar and keep billing.
The 30-40 Hour Work Week (The Ultimate Cheat)
Most people think night law school means working 9-5 then going to class. Wrong.
My firm makes me work 30-40 hours a week while I'm in law school. They still pay my full Patent Agent salary ($90K-$101K). Why? Because they want to retain me. Because a PhD-level patent agent who is becoming a lawyer is worth more than the hours lost. Because they know I will bill $400+/hour once I pass the bar.
Law school is free. The firm covers tuition. I pick only the optimal classes. I work reduced hours. I still lift 4x a week. I am not suffering. I am being paid to become a lawyer.
If your firm won't do this, find one that will. IP boutiques in Texas, California, and DC are desperate for technical talent. Negotiate. You have a PhD in semiconductors. You have leverage. Use it.
Phase 7: Wife Selection & Status Maximization
By the time you're 20-21, you are a Doctor, an Engineer, a Patent Agent making six figures, and on track to be a Lawyer. You are jacked. You have money. You are the only person in your PhD program who looks like he belongs in a nightclub instead of a basement.
This is the optimal window to pick your future wife.
If you like Asian women—and many of us do—this is where you strike. The Oxford study about PhDs being perceived as more attractive is real, but it only works if you are not a stereotype. Most Asian women in STEM programs, med school, or professional circles are surrounded by soft, passive men. Then you walk in: jacked, confident, Dr. before 21, earning more than their dad, with a Porsche key in your pocket.
You do not need to be handsome. I have a subhuman face. I am telling you from experience: credentials + muscle + money + confidence overrides facial aesthetics in mate selection. I was pulling women who would not have looked at me twice when I was a fat, ugly teenager.
Why lock in a wife now?
• You are at peak value relative to your age group.
• Women in professional programs (med school, dental school, engineering) are high-quality, educated, and come from good families.
• Marrying before 25, while your income is rising, locks in a partner who watched you build instead of one who only sees the finished product.
• A professional wife (doctor, dentist, engineer) adds a second income stream. Dual-income households at $400K+ are how you build generational wealth fast.
Where to meet them:
• University events (even as a grad student, you have access to undergrad and grad social circles)
• Professional networking events
• Church/temple if you are religious
• Gym (seriously—the gym at a major university or tech hub is full of professional women)
Do not waste time on dating apps as your primary strategy. Your in-person status signal is too strong to waste on algorithms.
Phase 8: Income Stack & The Porsche
Salary at graduation: $200K+ as a patent attorney.
But I bought a Porsche Taycan at 20. How?
Side income. I co-created a social media blocking app. It blocks distractions, tracks screen time, and sells premium subscriptions to parents and students. App income is variable but a decent consumer app with ads + premium + B2B partnerships can pull $5K-$30K/month. If you have equity and it grows, your stake adds to your net worth.
Between my reduced Patent Agent schedule and app revenue, I had the cash flow to finance the Taycan. The app also adds "tech founder" to the resume, which stacks on Dr./Lawyer/Engineer.
Why the app matters: Do not rely on W-2. Your PhD gives you the technical skills to build real products. Build something. Ship it. Even if it only makes $3K/month, that's $36K/year on top of your salary.
How to Run This for Your Kids
If you're 25 reading this and thinking "I missed the window," run it on your children:
1. Teach them to read at 3. Math at 4. Get them ahead of the curve before kindergarten.
2. Keep dual citizenship/residency. If your family abroad has a shorter school system, use it.
3. Move to Texas. Top 6% auto-admit is the best deal in American higher education.
4. Pay for APs and dual enrollment. $100 per AP exam vs. $1,500 per college credit.
5. Push research, not sports. A published 15-year-old is rarer than a varsity athlete.
6. Ensure U.S. citizenship. Patent bar requires it.
7. Be the enforcer. Your kid will hate you at 16. They will thank you at 22.
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Why This Works in the AI Age
AI is eating coders, paralegals, and analysts. It is not eating:
• PhD-level chip designers.
• Registered patent attorneys with technical degrees.
• People with three barriers to entry (Dr., J.D., Engineer).
You are not a cog. You are a strategic asset.
Final Word
This is hard as f***. I had advantages—higher-than-average IQ, immigrant parents who didn't accept excuses, good timing. But the real advantage was that I was already invisible. I was fat. I was ugly. I was ND. I had no friends to miss, no parties to skip, no social life to mourn. While other kids were crying about missing prom, I was already three years ahead of them. The loneliness that destroys normal people was just Tuesday for me.
If that sounds like you, this path is yours. The Porsche is nice. The status is nice. But the real win is being 21 with options, a jacked body, a locked-in wife, and the knowledge that you built it all while everyone else was playing catch-up.
Lock in.
This definitely isn’t the best path but it’s the one I took so I have the most info on it so I thought I would share. If you have any questions I can answer them let me know.
