Word: ian
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Ian, who graduated from a public university in the late ’90s, taught high school students for a few years, but soon realized he had no patience for kids who thought they were smarter and more hard-working than they actually were, and the “helicopter parents” who agreed. They should have all tried Math 55, Ian insists, referring to the legendary Harvard course catering to first-year math geniuses. During these frustrating years teaching, Ian played poker on the side...
It’s quickly apparent that Ian brings a cerebral bent to his work. He actively seeks and hoards information, isolating and then coddling a nugget of curiosity until it blossoms into a sprawling research project. A few years ago, Ian decided he needed to understand economics, so he bought a batch of textbooks off of Amazon and EBay to work through. Most days, he says, he puts in an hour or so on Wikipedia. On a recent October afternoon, “William III of England” is open on his computer—just to look...
...That was when I realized that, as a hobby or a part-time job, I was making far more per hour gambling than I was teaching,” Ian says, in his own version of a stock statement among professional gamblers. Disgruntled, under-appreciated—and then bewildered, struck by the clarity of the situation like Saul encountering the Lord: it’s a trajectory many working gamblers describe when they recount their transition from what some may call a “normal” life to a more alternative one. After five years teaching, Ian...
...regularly lies about my occupation,” Ian says. “She says I’m still a teacher...
...fact, Ian makes about as much as he did when he was teaching—around $50,000 a year. But there’s certainly a great deal less stress than before. The self-professed “night owl” likes that he can stay up until five a.m. and sleep in until noon. Ian suffers from mild carpal-tunnel syndrome, but that doesn’t stop him from playing five or six days a week, occasionally eight hours in a day. He usually has no more than 10 tables open (He has a friend with...