Author: Levi Benjamin

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Understanding Percentiles: What They Are and Why They Matter

When reading statistics, test scores, or income reports, you might encounter the term percentile. But what does it actually mean? Let’s break it down.

What Is a Percentile?

A percentile tells you how a particular value compares to the rest of the data in a set. In simple terms:> “The Xth percentile is the value below which X% of the data falls.”For example, if you score in the 90th percentile on a test, it means you scored better than 90% of all test takers.

How Percentiles Work

Percentiles divide data into 100 equal parts. Think of them like checkpoints along a number line:

25th percentile (Q1): The bottom quarter of the data

50th percentile (median): The middle value — half the data is below, half above

75th percentile (Q3): The top quarter starts here

So if a child is in the 40th percentile for height, it means they are taller than 40% of children and shorter than 60%.

Percentiles vs. Percentages

Percentiles are not the same as percentages. A 90% score on a test doesn’t always mean the 90th percentile. Percentiles are relative — they depend on everyone else’s scores. You could get 90/100 points, but if most people scored higher, your percentile might be lower.

Why Percentiles Are Useful

1. Education: Standardized test scores often use percentiles to show performance compared to peers.

2. Health: Pediatric growth charts use percentiles to track children’s development.

3. Finance & Economics: Income or wealth percentiles help analyze economic inequality.

4. Data Analysis: Percentiles identify outliers and understand distributions.

Quick Example

Imagine 10 students scored on a math test:50, 55, 60, 65, 70, 75, 80, 85, 90, 95The 50th percentile (median) is 70.The 90th percentile is 95. So, a student scoring 95 did better than 90% of the class.

Final Thoughts

Percentiles are a powerful tool for comparing values in context. They help turn raw numbers into meaningful insights, whether you’re tracking grades, growth, or income. Understanding percentiles makes it easier to see not just your score, but where you stand relative to the group.

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How To Make Money Online – Try to Avoid Paying For Stuff

If you’re looking to make money online, you should be looking to bootstrap. Bootstrapping is hard. It isn’t fun. It can feel like it’s taking forever. But it still works. It’s how people across the world get rich. It’s gotten a bit harder, as asset prices have risen. But if you can outlast the competition, you can still make it somewhere good. So, if you’re looking to make money online and are thinking of paying for a super overpriced course (more than say, $400) or a turnkey business. Don’t. There are a lot of reasons why hunkering down, being “cheap”, and bootstrapping your business is the best option.

There are a lot of scammers online

It’s way easier to make money scamming people than it is to make money doing the right thing. If you’re looking to make money online, the people looking to sell you the solution for big money, are probably looking to scam you. If you’re looking for a mentor, you’re going to look for stuff that makes sense, is simple, and is theoretical. Nobody is going to spoon-feed you the key to $1M per year in income. A lot of online money-making gurus have never made a cent online. They have no idea just how skilled and knowledgeable you need to be.

A lot of the information offered by non-scammers can be found for free

This is honestly the main reason you should avoid paying for online money-making information. You just won’t have to pay if you do your research and learn. The basics of making money online simply haven’t changed. The job is pretty much the same as it used to be in the past, we just have more video content and less paid media.

Owning your own organic marketing channels is key

A lot of the business gurus who are selling you solutions are not going to do the hard work that it takes to build an audience. They’re going to teach you strategies which may or may not work. What you want is to understand the internet well enough that you know how to make money online no matter what happens. You want to feel as though you have multiple options. This will only happen when you understand organic marketing along with ecommerce.

Building your own business is key

Learning how to build your own business is the key to getting strong. If you can build your own business from scratch, you’ll feel far more confident and at easy than otherwise. If you buy a turnkey business, you run the risk of making a lot of money without knowing what you’re doing. If things fall apart, you’re back at square one.

The one thing you should pay for

If you’re going to pay for one thing when it comes to making money online, let it be mentorship. Mentorship from someone who you know is succeeding. Learning from a mentor’s mistakes can be a lifesaver for those looking to start online businesses. You’ll save years of time. Look for someone who’s been consistent, and in the game for a long time. If they’re surviving and happy, they can make for a good mentor. This is where it gets tricky. The easiest way to get a good mentor is to pay them, but they need to be trustworthy. Choose wisely, and don’t overpay. Explore multiple traditional and nontraditional career options. A good mentor won’t build a business for you. They’ll just tell you what to do.

Reinvestment: A necessity in online business

When it comes to maintaining operating expenses, you’re going to want to be investing your money into your business. You want to get as much revenue as possible, as fast as possible. This means that you’re going to want to spend money on business expenses. That’s not what this article is about. This article is about avoiding making payments to gurus, snake oil salesmen, and charlatans. There are no shortcuts when it comes to make money online. You need a skill.

After a year of blogging, I can confidently say that it’s very possible to make money online. You just need to be consistent and hardworking. It’s not easy, but you will prevail if you put in the time and effort. Google picks up pretty much everything that’s decently written. You just need to put out the content, and you’ll get some eyeballs. Those eyeballs will come in for a long time. At least, that’s how things are right now. Take advantage of this fact to save money.

Thanks for paying attention.

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It’s Easier to Run a Large Business Than a Small Business (Focus on One Thing at a Time)

I’ve been writing online for the better part of a year now. On one hand, it’s been extremely encouraging. Getting traffic online is very possible, and the more you write the bigger your audience gets. That being said, the growing is slow. I don’t have any authority. I bought my domain name late, so I’m in a traffic slump. Rising Current is only two months old, coming up on three. If and when this website ranks on Google, I struggle to imagine it earning me more than $1,000/month. It could be as little as $100/month. Not a great living, even in a country as “poor” as mine. It would be easy to give up now. A lot of people would. Don’t put your eggs in one basket. Blogging isn’t a stable source of income. While these statements might technically be true, I’ve come to the conclusion that I haven’t grown this blog enough to make it easy to manage. You see, it’s easier for me to have confidence in a blog if the ad revenue alone is bringing me $2,000/month. That way, I don’t need to worry too much about creating a good product. I’ll be able to survive off of the advertising revenue, and everything else is just the cherry on top. I could try and create a product now and push my way to $2,000/month without writing more articles, but then I would be taking a bigger risk than if I just wrote more articles. You see, traffic almost always pays something. Until I’m pulling in north of 20,000 pageviews per month, I’ll almost certainly always make more money from writing more articles. This concept doesn’t only apply to blogs. It applies to all businesses. So, if you’re going to start one, I suggest you just take the risk and go for broke, because running a large business is far easier than attempting to manage a small one.

Large businesses have higher profit margins

Large businesses make much more money than small businesses. This is obvious, because it’s in the name. That being said, large businesses aren’t only making more money than small businesses overall, they’re making bigger products. When it comes to the world of physical products, large businesses can order more units. This means they get better pricing. The same thing applies to manufacturing. Bigger equipment means you’re more energy efficient; and you also use less by way of materials. Bigger businesses produce products that are cheaper than small businesses, and as such are able to make more money per sale. This also applies to consultancies and content businesses. The more you’re able to outsource, the more work you’re able to get done overall.

Large businesses have access to better pricing

This is slightly different from my point about profit margins. A lot of businesses, whether they’re manufacturers or companies that pay out commissions, have incentives for performance. Top performers pay less for stuff and get paid more for each sale. This is because success leads to the development of personal relationships. Good relationships mean good pricing.

Large businesses have human capital

This is the big one. It’s way easier to manage stuff when you have other people working for you. I don’t think I need to elaborate. This is my eventual goal with this blogging thing. There’s a lot of power in hiring people to write online for you. I’m surprised more people don’t leverage that power.

Large businesses can withstand more problems

This is true for two reasons. The first, is that large businesses are those that have an established customer base. If that customer base is enthusiastic about the business, they’re willing to put up with delays, malfunctions, and price hikes to a certain degree. The second reason large business can handle more issues is due to cash on hand. Unless the company is being run very badly, a large business will have more cash than a small business. Cash lets you pay your way out of problems.

You can become a large business via consistency and good service

As long as you’re producing stuff that’s in demand, you should be able to get customers. This is because even if people have a favorite- an incumbent (your biggest competitor)- you have a good shot at making sales whenever something happens. Your competitor might run out. The price might rise, the customer might want to try something new. After a certain amount of time, if you have a half decent product, you will have a following. From there, it’s all about scaling up.

Look for demand with the right mindset

A lot of people are bad at evaluating what’s in demand. This is sometimes because they’re following trends. A good example of this is with restaurants. People see others opening a bunch of restaurants and assume that running a restaurant is a great way to make money. It isn’t, and about 80% of restaurants fail despite people pouring thousands of dollars into them. This is terrible in a world in which pretty much anyone with a computer or cellphone can make a positive return by talking into a screen. When you’re looking for demand, don’t look at what new things people are starting. Look at what people are actually buying. For digital marketers, this means looking at how to get good, valuable traffic. This is done by using the right format or platform for creating content, and then executing. Figure out how much each platform pays per thousand views and attack the one which you think will earn you the most money. A lot of people give up far too early. This is because the math behind content creation is a bit difficult to do. It takes a long time to recuperate your investment, and it’s never totally clear how much money you’ll make. There are lots of variables, and content has the power to make money for a long time if done right. It’s good to try and figure out the value of an individual peice of content if you can. I think each article I write is worth about $30 right now. If I keep pressing onward, each article will be with $240. But I have to get the right ad networks and have enough traffic to test products in order to do that. This means building a bigger blog. Content is always in demand nowadays, so I’ll keep producing more until I have a large business.

Work hard and focus

This is honestly the best way to get ahead of 90–95% of people. Just focus on building a big business, brick by brick. Think in terms of years, not weeks or months. This is easy in today’s era. Content creation, paid ads, and email lists allow us to set highly quantifiable goals for our businesses. I know how much traffic I need and how much I need to make per 1,000 views in order to make this blog profitable, worthwhile, and lucrative. Generally speaking, however, I know that the more I write, the larger my final number gets. It’s easier to run a big blog than a small blog. That means I’ll just keep writing.

Starting a new business is always tricky. But it’s easier if you go all in. The more money your company makes, the more likely it is you’re here to stay. Work hard and don’t be afraid to push for stretch goals.

Thanks for paying attention.

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Start Early to Get the Best Results with The Least Effort

If you want to get the best results possible, you’re going to want to start as early as possible. This applies to every aspect of the game of life, and it’s becoming more clear to me as I age. If I had one thing to tell my 18 year old self, it would be to start *right now*. It doesn’t matter whether your dream is to be a construction worker or a rap star. You want to get to work on your dream as young as possible, so that you can take it as far as possible.

I’ve made a lot of progress towards my dream of being a digital nomad because of the fact that I started early. I was learning about making money online from a young age, and starting around the age of 21, I decided that I was going to make it to the top of my field. I put my head down and worked, and now I’ve almost reached the living standard of an average person, globally speaking. This is all fantastic, and I’m quite happy with where I am in life, but I also know the consequences of starting late in life.

I have little to no chance of ever becoming very wealthy by western standards. I haven’t laid the groundwork for it. I don’t have the skills or relationships required to succeed. My country has been growing, and I’ve grown with it. But the United States has gotten extremely wealthy in the 6 years since I’ve left. I don’t think it really matters how hard I work. If I were to move there 5 years from now, I would probably find myself living quite poorly.

If I had done more work, or worked differently, I would have a better shot. I could have stayed on the American scene. I could have gone into tech, gotten a remote job, and been making my way up the career ladder by now. This would have yielded me a higher salary, and different opportunities as a result. But I didn’t do that work, and now I am where I am.

Experiences compound the same way money does

When it comes to money, the “retire early” types seem to understand the concept of compounding very well. But it also applies to life experiences. All of the life experiences you have compound to create you, whoever you are. I’ve experienced living in North America, creating content for money, and living as a normal person in a poor country. As such, I’m well positioned to write about self improvement, content creation, and being a digital nomad. I could learn another skillset such as IT, but I know what I’m doing in the “game” of writing and blogging too. As a result, it makes sense for me to keep writing, up until a certain point. I’ll probably be taking a hard look at IT/Computer programming soon, but I can get very far with just the written word alone.

Get on it

I got on it at the right time. As soon as I turned 21, I was focused. This is because I moved abroad from a wealthier country without much savings, and well before the passport bro phenomenon. I knew I would have to work hard just to have a bit of something in this world, and I started working as soon as I hit the ground as a result.

Make sure you’re also doing this. If you’re in a wealthy country and in your mid-20s, you should have a lot of money saved, or be studying for a great career. This is especially true in the United States. People in your age cohort are already self-made millionaires. You want to have a general direction in mind by your 20s, and be on your way by your mid 20s. For some jobs (like teaching), success is disconnected from income. That’s ok, but you want to be finding success by your 30s or 40s. From watching my parents and others work their way up the ladder, I can say with confidence that success isn’t created overnight, but you start to see the clues by the time someone is in their early 30s. A lot of this stuff is only possible if you start early. Graduating at 16 gave my parents an edge. Having successful family members has given me an edge. You don’t have to apply this to financial and career success only. If you start riding bikes at a young age, you’re more likely to be an amazing cyclist. You can apply this logic to your children too. Overall, life is long and your choices compound. Fight for what you want and choose wisely.

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Continue Reading: Why Thirsting for Information Will Help You Get Rich

Reading is one of those fundamental skills that is being overlooked nowadays. The economy has people convinced that certain skills are better than others, and right now the Humanities are on the chopping block. This isn’t due to the fact that the Huminites have stopped being important. It’s actually due to the rise of remote work and artificial intelligence. The two phenomena have come together in order to help people from poorer countries access the knowledge economy. This for better or worse has put a lot of Americans out of business. This on its own would be rough, but the effect is compounded by AI such that almost all Americans are priced out of entry-level jobs. It doesn’t really matter if they take a pay cut. The current economy is set up so that the cost of training employees is no longer as worthwhile as it used to be.

Since a lot of lower-level knowledge jobs are no longer in the United States, many people have thrown the baby out with the bathwater. In many circles knowledge has become useless, particularly if it’s the product of expertise. Everyone wants to do their own thing, and they want to feel like they’re in charge of their own learning. While the latter goal is quite admirable, it shouldn’t be achieved by discarding expertise. As I said earlier, people are throwing out the baby with the bathwater. We want experts in our lives, and we definitely want to be able to trust them. The reason our current society hates expertise is because the people in charge have betrayed our trust at every turn. The anti-intellectualism of the late 2010s and early 2020s has everything to do with that betrayal of trust.

Many people lament the state of the world at the moment. This is especially true in the United States, Canada, and the UK, were people feel as though radical ideologies have taken hold of their peers. I can seem where the alarm comes from. People really are less intellectual than they used to be. That’s because they’re more skill based. In the past, you needed to be qualified in academia in order to make it to the top of society. Nowadays, entrepreneurs and skilled tradespeople are more respected. So, it’s not that people are getting dumber, they’re just knowledgeable about the things they truly need to know about.

Most people like to gain expertise in skills that can be learned visually or collaboratively. Hobbies like drawing and skateboarding come to mind. As Gen Z comes of age, they are taking part more and more in the digital economy. As such, we’re seeing more and more skills getting monetized by young Americans, while entry level jobs seem to be all but forgotten. Contrary to popular belief, this doesn’t mean that reading and “book smarts” are dead. They’ve just evolved.

Nowadays nobody wants to read. At best they want to get the skills they need to pay the bills. At worst, they want to scam or trade their way to riches. It will never work for most, but the few edge cases are more than enough to keep most people going. After all, it’s hard to resist the idea of having unlimited money and beautiful women come to you with ease. In reality, scamming and funny business lead to lots of pain and suffering. If you embrace this way of life, you’ll find it backfiring against you in many ways. Reading will set you apart when it comes to building a legitimate skill.

A lot of people have skills that are relatively low value. This is because most people are average, and average people learn average things. Nowadays, people need to earn money, but there isn’t a ton of value to earning average amounts of money. Most countries have universal healthcare of some kind, so we only truly need money for basic provisioning. This means that most people try to make money with skills that are simple and fun, rather than complicated and difficult. You can set yourself apart from the crowd by learning the skills that are complicated and difficult.

When you learn complicated and difficult things, you give yourself the chance to become what I like to call a “go to guy”. A “go to guy” is someone who people call to have a specific problem fixed. This means that people trust you and like you enough to support your lifestyle.

I’ve become somewhat a go to guy when it comes to making money online. I know what I’m doing, and people know that so they ask me for advice. That’s because I read about everything. I learned the statistics about YouTube, blogging, SEO, and many other ways of making money online. It was long boring work, but now I know more than most, and my plans should come to fruition with relative ease.

Reading will take you far in becoming a go to guy. Everyone is busy watching YouTube videos nowadays. If you read, you get access to the material that the instructor used to learn his stuff. Nowadays with the internet you can do extensive research, and tie articles and pieces of text together. This means you can build on things that you hear and see and find insights that you never otherwise could have. Reading also allows you to access information quickly, and also reference it. It’s easier to search for or bookmark an article than it is to skip through a YouTube video. When you get into the habit of reading, you’ll have lots of pieces of information to reference, and those pieces of information will put you head and shoulders above the competition, especially if you’re learning a skill.

So, get reading. It’s an important habit, one that will always allow you to find new ways of getting ahead and creating your dream life.

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Usury: The Sin of Our Modern World

The modern world is on track to crumble, and it’s not because of anything related to aliens or kidnapped children. We’re living in a world of sin, and usury is a pretty destructive one amongst all of them. It’s pretty simple: to make the global economy run, the United States of America prints money, and loans it out. Most people like to use the US dollar, it’s easy and convenient. As a result of this, most people and businesses hold their savings in US dollar. Economists call the US dollar the world reserve currency. The debt created by the US federal reserve fuels new work and powers the global economy.

This would all be fine, if humans knew moderation. The Federal Reserve would modulate interest rates, and banks would lend their money to sensible businesses. This is far from what’s actually happening. For the past couple of decades, we’ve overfunded nonsense and scams. When I say this, I don’t mean that all or most businesses are defrauding their clientele, but rather that many businesses aren’t helping the world run better. How much destruction does alcohol create? What about cigarettes? How about the credit industry? When you look at the ripple effects of routine mistakes, I think it’s pretty obvious that we’re weirdly placed on the precipice of crumbling.

I’m not one of those doomers who thinks society will collapse. People are highly adaptable and will likely find a way to survive even in the most unlikely situations. But at a certain point, the age of easy money and large inheritances will be over. This is because it’s all being propped up by debt. It’s written in Deuteronomy 23:19 that “you shall not charge interest on loans to your brother, interest on money, interest on food, interest on anything that is lent for interest.” So lending and charging interest is antibiblical. I don’t know whether everything in the bible is an accurate retelling of the word of God, but it has a way of giving good advice and imparting solid instructions. Interest loans hurt both creditors and debtors.

Nowadays everyone is offering credit for everything. If you want to buy a house, you can get a mortgage, and in the United States you can deduct the interest from your taxes. You can also take out a loan for your car. Or any household item for that matter. This is making it so that everybody who taps in can afford lots of things, including those who haven’t done the requisite work. This puts an overall strain on the society, making it so that productive people have to work even harder for what’s rightfully theirs. To compound the problem, it also allows people to work unproductive jobs, as fake industries are packed full of productive and talented workers. Debt destroys societies, and it does so insidiously and in a sneaky way.

The main way to avoid having to take on debt is by keeping your costs low. If you can avoid drinking, drugs, travel, luxury items, or premature children, you should be ok. The problem is, that this is a tough ask. The things I mentioned before are all a result of the trauma that is caused by our society. People indulge themselves in order to fill the void growing within them. If we can all heal our internal trauma, we can fight this insatiable urge to take on debt, and improve society. Try to fight the urge to use leverage in your daily life, and rely on the force of your willpower. My favorite Twitter account, @bowtiedbull was the first to say something similar.

If you can figure out a way to avoid usury, you’re going to be able to go far economically. The thing about debt is that it always must be repaid. The people using debt to live large are going to suffer, and those using it to start businesses are risking their financial records and reputations. The latter can work for some in wealthy countries such as the United States, but generally speaking, this way of living leads to immense suffering. Building your assets brick by brick and watching yourself succeed is a far more secure way of creating income and wealth. If you spend 20 years building true assets without taking on debt, you should have 6–7 figures to your name when you’re finished. If you’re smart and take good care to protect those, you should be living a nice life, even if you’re technically spending frugally.

Things won’t change at the macro level if we don’t talk about the problem or vote. Bring up finances when you can. Try to remain grounded, living in reality. Uplift everyone you can by remaining down to Earth.