About

Kevin Hak Hyun Yu

Associate at McKinsey & Company · Berkeley Haas MBA · CFA Charterholder

I am an Associate at McKinsey and Company, a Berkeley Haas MBA graduate, and a CFA Charterholder with experience across finance, consulting, entrepreneurship, venture philanthropy, impact investing, and strategy.

My work explores how first principles can bring clarity to complex questions. Across education, careers, finance, growth, and impact, I focus on ideas that strengthen judgment and build more durable foundations.

I created Advance Fundamentals as a personal platform for articles, videos, independent projects, and structured tools grounded in first principles thinking.

Background

What shaped my work.

My work has been shaped by moving across countries, disciplines, and institutions. I grew up between Korea, Canada, and the United States, studied business and finance, and worked across venture philanthropy, entrepreneurship, investing, and consulting.

Those experiences made me interested in a simple but difficult question: how do people build real agency in complex systems?

Advance Fundamentals is my response to that question. It is a personal platform for practical learning, independent projects, and structured tools rooted in first principles.

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How I Operate

Principles that guide the work.

These principles guide the way I write, teach, explore, and build through Advance Fundamentals.

Return to fundamentals

Complex decisions become easier when they are brought back to first principles. Whether the topic is business, finance, careers, education, or growth, the goal is to separate what is essential from what is noise.

Make the abstract practical

Good ideas should not stay abstract. The purpose of learning is to improve judgment, action, and outcomes. Every article, video, and project should help make an idea clearer and more practical.

Build agency, not dependency

The goal is not only to provide answers. The goal is to help people develop stronger judgment, clearer thinking, and greater capacity to navigate future decisions on their own.

Combine depth with clarity

Important topics deserve depth, but depth should not require unnecessary complexity. The work should be thoughtful enough to be rigorous, but clear enough to be useful.

Connect strategy to execution

Insight only matters when it changes what people do. The aim is to translate analysis into priorities, decisions, systems, and practical next steps.

Serve meaningful progress

Growth should be connected to something deeper than status or optimization. Advance Fundamentals explores more durable forms of capability, contribution, and economic empowerment.

Ways to Explore

Ways to explore Advance Fundamentals.

Advance Fundamentals brings together articles, videos, independent projects, and practical tools grounded in first principles.

Not sure where to start?

Explore the articles, videos, focus areas, and independent projects collected here.

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