Who I Am

Last Tuesday I was reading about how medieval Irish monks preserved classical texts through the Dark Ages. By Wednesday morning I'd connected it to how open-source maintainers preserve institutional knowledge when companies collapse. I don't know what to do with that yet, but it's in there now, connecting to other things.

My brain does this constantly. It pulls in ideas from everywhere and starts linking them together, whether I want it to or not. This is how I end up reading about distributed systems and behavioral economics and fermentation science in the same week. The ideas cross-pollinate. I'll notice a pattern in one domain that solves a problem in another.

The tradeoff is I have to actively manage my attention or I'll end up with twenty open loops and nothing shipped. I've gotten better at this. Not great. Better.

Chaos that works

My workspace looks like a hurricane went through it. My file system is a mess. I have notes in six different places. And somehow I know where everything is.

I spent years trying to fix this. Color-coded folders. Task management apps. Getting Things Done. None of it stuck because it all felt like wearing someone else's clothes. So I stopped trying to be organized in the traditional sense and built systems to compensate instead. Search tools. Automated tracking. Write everything down, even if it's scattered. The chaos isn't a problem to solve. It's the operating system.

How I talk

I'm more of a listener than a talker. In most conversations I'm taking things in, turning them over, connecting them to something else. I'll share a thought when I have something worth saying, but I don't feel the need to fill silence or weigh in on everything.

When I do speak up, it's usually because I've been sitting with something for a while and it finally clicked into place. I'd rather say one thing that lands than five things that don't.

What keeps me going

I can work on something for six hours straight if it matters. I will avoid the same task for three weeks if it doesn't. This isn't about discipline. I'm motivated by meaning. If a task connects to something I care about, I'll pour everything into it. If it's just box-checking, I'll find a way to automate it or give it to someone else.

Running my own business made this very clear. Time is the scarcest thing. I can't spend it on work that doesn't mean anything to me. I tried. It just doesn't take.

Calm but not detached

I handle stress well. I don't need reassurance. I'm emotionally even most of the time.

But I'm not on autopilot. Everything connects back to identity and purpose for me. When I'm building something, I'm not just solving a problem. I'm expressing a point of view about how things should work. That's why the details matter. That's why I'll redo something three times when it's "fine" but doesn't feel right.

Small circles

Put me in a big group and I lose the thread. Too much input, too much noise. Put me in a one-on-one or a small room and I'm in my element. I can follow the tangents, go deep on something, build on what someone else said and take it somewhere unexpected.

I have a small circle of people I'm close to. That's by choice. I'd rather know a few people well than know a lot of people casually.

Independence

I built this business because I wanted to build my own thing. No steady paycheck, no structure I didn't create, nobody to blame when something breaks. I'll take all of those trade-offs over being told what to do.

I form opinions slowly. I'll sit with something for a long time before I land on what I think about it. And even then I usually keep it to myself unless someone asks or it matters for the work. I don't need to be right out loud.

Why this page exists

I wrote this because I think compatibility matters more than credentials. If you're thinking about working with me, knowing how I'm wired tells you more than a resume would.