On the clock
What I'm into at work
I've spent a career finding the system, finding the lever, and pulling it. The work that scratches the itch is figuring out how a messy thing actually works and then making it run better. Most of the fun is in the trade-offs: simple versus precise, fast versus perfect, how much to automate, how long to spend before you ship. Each one is a lever, and I lean toward simple. I'd rather ship something real, start capturing value, and iterate from there than wait on a distant launch to see any return. Agile over waterfall, every time.
What that looks like:
- Solution architecture, and the trade-offs that decide whether a thing is actually any good
- Data design, getting the shape of the data right so everything downstream gets easier
- Automation that's simple and repeatable, not a clever machine that only works once
- Data science and AI, picking the right model for the job instead of the flashiest one
- Systems thinking, drawing clean boundaries so each part does one thing well
The pattern under all of it
It comes back to decision automation at scale. You can only automate a decision well when it lives in a well-designed system, so the work always returns to systems design.
Off the clock
Outdoors and staying in shape
I'm a healthy-body, healthy-mind person. I don't like feeling out of shape, and I've never felt like the best version of me when I am. For me it comes down to capability, physical and mental, and exercise is how I keep both sharp.
Running is the efficient version of that. I like the small runner's high and the satisfaction of having finished, and it buys the most capability for the least time, so even this turns into an optimization problem. Chattanooga makes the rest easy: trailheads nobody is fighting over, a lake, a river, and weather that mostly cooperates.
- Running my greenway loop most days, plus the occasional half marathon
- Hiking the trails around Chattanooga
- The gym, a few times a week, to stay in shape
- Paddleboarding on Lake Chickamauga and down the Tennessee River
- Biking the Riverwalk when the mood hits
Off the clock
Travel and life at home
I'd rather spend on experiences than things, and travel is the big one. New places, new food, new cultures. It traces back to the Navy, which showed me parts of the world I never would have found on my own. I'm not chasing extremes for the story, I just like understanding how other people live.
Closer to home, it's the simple stuff that makes a place feel like one.
- Travel, more for understanding a place than for checking sights off a list
- New cuisines and cultures, a curiosity that started in the Navy
- Road trips and camping when there's time to wander
- Chattanooga Lookouts games and following my teams
- Antiquing with my wife, and barbecues and movie nights with the neighbors