Philipp Meyer grew up in a working class neighborhood in Baltimore. His mother is an artist; his father worked as an electrician, cabinet maker, and art installer before becoming a college science instructor. The neighborhood, Hampden, had been devastated by the collapse of various heavy industries, and crime and unemployment were rampant. Meyer attended city public schools until dropping out at age 16. He spent the next five years working as a bicycle mechanic and occasionally volunteering at Baltimore s Shock Trauma Center. At age 20, he began taking classes at a variety of colleges in Baltimore and decided to become a writer. He also decided to leave his hometown, and at 22, on his third attempt at applying to various Ivy League colleges, he was admitted to Cornell University. He graduated with a degree in English and a mountain of debt and headed for Wall Street to pay off his student loans. After getting a job with the Swiss investment bank UBS, Meyer did training in London and Zurich and was assigned to an elite group of derivatives traders, jokingly referred to as the genius desk. After several years at UBS, he d paid off most of his student loans and decided to pursue