I love reading and learning. I grew up inhaling books, and not watching any tv. Consequently, I have zero knowledge or understanding of the 90s or 2000s pop culture. But, I can and would like to talk for hours about which books changed you as a person. For me, they were (are) Fountainhead, 1984, Crime & Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov, Just Kids, and the Body Keeps the Score. In general, I enjoy philosophical and historical fiction.

I hate boxes and neat labels. Like many other people with rich inner lives, I don’t like the idea of being defined by any one thing or by the average experience of any category of people. That doesn’t mean I do not relate to some stereotypes; it means I hate being viewed externally through a stereotypical lens. It makes sense, then, that one of my favorite blog posts, is: The categories were made for man, not man for the categories (link).

I care deeply about freedom of speech – a freedom core to the pursuit of truth. I’m especially interested in First Amendment law, investigative journalism, rationalist theory, and geopolitics. I think a lot about how the most important stories can be told (investigative journalism), how they get distributed (media incentives), and how they get discovered (information discovery and search).

I currently work on that third aspect of information search and discovery at Parallel. Several years ago, I tried to start a company to work on this exact same problem, but we failed. I’m excited to be back at, what I believe is, one of humanity’s most important problems. Professionally, I’ve done other credible and logo-collecting work. More importantly, I have continuously tried to figure out the path of maximum impact, while balancing intellectual fulfillment, personal values, and financial independence. That has led me down many mini-careers – including education policy and impact investing, investment banking, startup stuff, and venture capital. I’m still figuring it out – I allow the answer to evolve with evolving seasons of my life.

I send a lot of cold emails to people I think are cool. It started as a necessity because I was an outsider in Silicon Valley and didn’t know what warm intros were; now it’s a fun way of life. Almost every job I’ve ever had, has been through a cold email. A few people believed in me disproportionately, before they had any reason to – those moments changed my life. I will always be loyal to them, and hope to pay it forward.

I look up to Barack Obama, Alexei Navalny, and Isobel Yeung. I hope to emulate their courage and hard work.

I like food, fitness, dry humor, debates, and bookstores (a lot).

I’ve written about startups, consumer social, crypto, education; occasionally write poetry; often write musings; and sometimes share reading recommendations.