73 · The Default Setting

THE DEFAULT IS 7.5 HOURS OF SLEEP AND 16 HOURS OF SHEER VISCERAL FOCUS. Do this for the next eighteen months.

Assuming until the end of 2027 — the next eighteen months — I'm probably going to lock myself in a room. From nothing to $10k a month in eighteen months, along with the great goals. Let's see how much we can execute with God. Eighteen hours a day for eighteen months — that's 10,000 hours. You can become a world-class quant in that time. Really think about how you'll spend it. Choose one thing and go fully in. You might explore several things, but that's dispersion; you can do both only if your mind is set fully on the work.

18 × 29 × 24 = 12,528. Eighteen hours of sheer work with one day off a month for twenty-four months gives you over 10,000 hours in a niche. And with today's tools and iteration speed, that can be shortened — radically.

Can you do this for eighteen months? Fuck yeah. In my dorm: trading, investing, maths, physics, finance, academic research, coding, self-study, reading, everything on freeCodeCamp. DQ1 is exactly that. DQ2 is filming, recording, editing, posting, clipping. DQ3 is AI agents, the SaaS business, a banger website. DQ4 is quant projects, digital products, online tutorials for maths and physics, A-level preparation, STEP preparation, programming projects. I am willing to throw myself into solitude for eighteen months — totally doable. People won't even know I'm alive: sixteen to eighteen hours of work every day, one hour of prayer, one hour of gym, sauna and running, kickboxing at full ham. I would LOVE that stretch of time.

The first two months before Canada are vital: completely mastering mathematics and coding together, learning the quant fundamentals — but building and scaling the business first. I'm letting you know now: it will be a very lonely, deep path, and you will suffer, without a doubt. Know just two things. You are destined for this — your existence is for this goal. And you will come out the other end unrecognisable. So trust God and make it happen.

My radically addictive personality is the engine. When something grabs me as a goal, I die into it — twenty-six hours straight, sleep when the flesh gives out, wake, shower, back at it. In Manitoba, living alone, I'll have the freedom to live the way I'm built: work without looking at the clock, thirty-to-forty-hour work days, crash every once in a while. And when it's time for the Starbucks shifts, cram them into a couple of days.

The new default means working technically every hour you are awake, removing every bottleneck that does not contribute to the Grand Mission. That is what I chose to put on the altar. I don't know how long this phase lasts — at least the next six months. Totally worth paying the price of eighteen-hour days, seven days a week. Your entire existence staked, willing to live for it and die for it.

David might actually move into my dorm. Working every waking hour: morning church, morning run, eight hours of work, food, school, eight more hours, gym, church, bed. For eighteen months straight. School, part-time jobs and the rest of the bullshit get handled around it.

There is working hard, there is working really hard, and there is "what the fuck is wrong with that person." I want to transcend that last category by a billion-fold. No schedule, no routine — doing whatever the work demands with nonstop intensity. You completely forget the date. Wake up, work until the flesh collapses, then get back to work.