Overall, I pursue ease, joy, and meaningfulness. Sometimes I obtain them, sometimes not.

I have at times identifed as an epistemic trespasser. Here’s how some of my professional/personal interests translate into something legible to others. They’re not sorted in any particular order, despite using an <ol>

1. I sometimes function as a researcher/advocate on the issues of “the origins of some arcane bits of modern legal infrastructure.”
2. documenting (via Tiktok) various aspects of the mobility networks I encounter, conducting harm reduction where possible, as an example of how some aspects of our mobility networks could change, and why.
3. improving the portions of a built environment that is allocated to vehicle movement and storage 🚗🚛🛻🏍️ you can hire me to do this for you
4. improving the performance of rails applications. Productized consulting around (initially) just making one’s Ruby/Rails test suite run 20-80% faster, locally and/or on one’s CI provider of choice.
5. programming p1, a bunch of my programming-related writing.
6. programming, p2, interactive map of a few years of scooter travel.
7. programming p3. I’ve got some stuff happening at intermediateruby.com
8. streets and mobility networks 🚋. I want them/us/it to ‘do better’. If you have responsibility for a property line, I’d like to work with you.
9. I’ve ‘travelled a lot’, read a lot, met many people over the years, been shaped by it, personally and professionally.
10. My primary vehicle is a 170cc gasoline scooter. All around Denver, of course, but you should know that I recently rode from Denver to British Columbia, then to Seattle, and then back to Denver. I sometimes “talk about scooters a lot/too much”. 🤷‍♂️
11. I’ve got a two year old daughter. As one could imagine, being a parent and partner is a thought-provoking and evokative experience.
12. years ago I wrote many sequential guides for people learning backend software development, or self-serving the curriculum. They’re still best-in-class. If you happen to be considering backend software development, here’s something that could be germane to you.
13. climbing 🧗‍♀️. Bouldering on the 2016 moonboard, and when I put a harness on, I “have thoughts” around embodying a very real sense of “I no longer feel fear while sport climbing, and instead experience distinctive peacefulness”. I’ve called it coaching, I’ve been paid for it. Most of those I’ve worked with have seen 3+ grades of improvement across just a few roped sessions.
14. climbing, again: I have helped some people make huge gains in their climbing abilities, mostly by improving the technical and mental skills around lead belaying and lead climbing. It’s a slippery slope from “getting really good at belaying” to “trying hard at 5.12 and 5.13”. I wrote an e-book, and a small book worth of blog posts. I’ve coached formally and informally dozens of climbers/my climbing partners through this space. I generally don’t do this for them, but for me - I cannot climb well/enjoy my session unless I feel a certain degree of confidence in my belayer. Inevitably, all come away climbing several grades harder. Read the last line again. 📞

As you could guess, this represents an ebb and flow of energy and focus, across several years.