Buying a First Home

A working understanding of game theory — the study of how rational agents make decisions when outcomes depend on each other's choices. The trunk gives you the core solution concepts and vocabulary; clusters dive into auctions, bargaining, evolutionary games, mechanism design, and where the rational-actor model fails.

How real estate actually works — as an asset class and as a transaction. The trunk covers ownership and title, mortgages and leverage, valuation, the buy/sell process, rentals and landlording, taxes, development, and REITs; clusters go deep on the math and mechanics.

How machine learning actually works — from learning-as-optimization through the classical toolkit to deep learning and foundation models. The depth step after AI Fundamentals: real mechanics, no code or graduate math required.

A working understanding of calculus — the mathematics of change and accumulation. The trunk gives you the throughline from limits and derivatives through the Fundamental Theorem to the borderlands where calculus hands off to analysis. Clusters dive into rigorous limits, integration techniques, multivariable and vector calculus, differential equations, series, and complex analysis.

How markets, brokers, and order books actually work — and what the evidence says about trying to beat them. The trunk covers market mechanics, asset classes, leverage, and the risk math every participant needs; clusters dive into microstructure, execution, the retail arenas, sizing math, psychology, manias, and strategy evidence.

The financial life skills nobody actually taught you — money psychology, budgeting, debt, credit, taxes, insurance, retirement accounts, and the math of financial independence. Walk the trunk and you have a system; pull on a cluster when something specific matters.