What accelerated your understanding of how the world works?
brk: For me it was simply getting out in the world at a relatively young age at a variety of levels.I never really got any allowance, mostly just because my old man was a bit of a cheap-ass and a control freak.  It was easier to earn my own money instead of having to be beholden to him and account for where my spendings went.And I've always been rather enterprising, so I tried various forms of income multiplication like loansharking and other investments.You learn how the world works much more quickly when you are on your own and interacting with various people at various levels in various ways.  For me this started in earnest around age 10.At some point I figured out early on that other people have only has much power as you give them, and that nobody else is ever going to be looking our for YOUR best interests, despite what they might say.