about
I started programming in 2012, in a physics lab, writing Python to make a university telescope point at the right patch of sky. The code talked to Stellarium for positioning, handled focusing and image capture, then processed the results (with C bindings for the heavy loops) to extract the data I actually needed for my master's thesis in astrophysics. I didn't set out to become a programmer. I needed a bridge between the instrument and the science, so I built one.
That pattern stuck. I went from physics into product and analytics, then into analytics engineering. Along the way I learned Clojure by convincing engineers to let the analysts sit through their onboarding. I spent time deep in Scala and Spark. I picked up a "Design at Heart" award for caring about how designers worked and trying to bring their practices into the analytical world - and vice versa. The common thread was always the same: find the boundary where two disciplines don't quite speak each other's language, and build something in the gap.
These days I manage a team and tinker with tools on the side. The practical projects tend to solve problems I'm running into at work. The more experimental ones sit at the intersection of AI and the question of how different kinds of minds can work together. Most are somewhere in between: things I build because the friction bothered me enough to do something about it.
My imagination consists of concepts, not images, and I work with them directly, with structure and relationships rather than pictures. That probably explains something about how I approach problems: I care more about the shape of an idea than its presentation, and I'm naturally drawn to understanding how different people perceive the world differently. It's part of why I like building tools. A good tool meets people where they are, not where the tool designer happens to think.
My brain also keeps random connections between ideas alive, and I've always found that the notes I take for myself end up being useful to others too. The connections I make between a talk I watched, a book I read, or a pattern I noticed at work tend to stick around in my head and come up in conversations months later. At some point it made sense to put them somewhere more durable than a random notepad. This site is that place.
Disclaimer, privacy, and license
Disclaimer#
This site contains personal notes and essays written at specific points in time.
They reflect my understanding and perspective at the time of writing, not a claim to timeless truth or completeness. As I learn, revise my views, or gain new information, earlier posts may become outdated or incorrect.
The content is shared as a record of thinking in progress, not as authoritative guidance.
Privacy#
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License#
Unless otherwise stated, the original written content on this site is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) license.
This means you are free to:
- Share: copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format
- Adapt: remix, transform, and build upon the material
Under the following conditions:
- Attribution: You must give appropriate credit and indicate if changes were made.
- Non-Commercial: You may not use the material for commercial purposes without permission.
For uses outside the scope of this license (e.g. commercial use), please contact me.