The need to win was everywhere in life, in every act, in every conversation, in every encounter between people.
The Hustler, walter tevis
Hello, I’m Ace Eddleman.
Although I never planned it out this way, I’ve discovered that my goal in life is to break down complex, real-world games and figure out how to beat them.
In essence, everything I write about is geared towards finding the best ways to win — no matter what the circumstances.
The lens I see all this through is informed by my obsession with learning, an intense competitive spirit, and a long-standing interest in systems.
My Background
By virtue of my focus on challenging games and finding ways to win, I’ve spent time in a variety of different domains.
My first foray into meaningful complexity was in finance. I started as an options trader in my early 20s and did that full-time for around 5 years.
After a while, I got bored of finance (and sick of all the paperwork) and started to write code in my free time. This became a new outlet for me that sucked up a ton of my time.
The book of business I’d built in options was running more or less on autopilot at this point, so I dedicated about 9 months to getting myself up to what could be considered a “professional standard.”
This kicked off about 3 years of full-time coding experience. That was long enough for me to discover that A) I love building systems, and B) I hate doing it for other people as a job. So I stopped that.
Throughout this process, I’ve been writing, researching and experimenting with my thoughts on 52 Aces. Initially I created this site as a way to self-publish my first book, The Learning Factory.
I had no idea what I was doing at the time. Writing a book was just something I’d always wanted to do, so sat down and started writing.
At first I wasn’t even sure how I was going to structure the book. I’d spent years working on my learning systems, but hadn’t given much thought to whether anybody would even want it. In some sense, I didn’t care — I just wanted to check off the “Wrote a book” box in my mind.
Fortunately, I discovered that what I had to offer was of interest to people all over the world.
It took me several more years, and many more words, to discover through trial and error what the common thread of all my work was: understanding how to win.
Although it was ambiguous at first, it started to make sense. Whoever learns faster generally wins. Whoever understands the systems in their environment better generally wins.
All of my work kept highlighting this tendency in my thinking. So I decided to just embrace. Now I guess I’m “the winning guy.” There are worse titles to have I guess.
When I’m not writing, I’m usually playing VR games, training jiu-jitsu, or hanging out with my guinea pigs.
Get Into My Work
If you’re looking to dive into my work, check these links out:
- The books I’ve written
- The courses I’ve created
- Start here — a curated collection of my work
Free Learning Course
If you enter your email address below, I’ll get you started with my free, 7-part Learning Basics email course. It’s a great way to incorporate some winning learning habits right away.
Contact Me
If you’d like to get in touch with me, you can use this form to send me a message, or you can hit me up on Twitter.