<h1>🌎 About me</h1>
<p>I was born and raised in Bloomington, MN and commonly joke about wanting to escape from the frigid north one day when on awkward intro calls. I went to college at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities and got a B.A. in Computer Science. After a short stint at Thomson Reuters after college I joined NetSPI and began my career as an engineer and hacker.</p>
<h1>Growing up</h1>
<p>Growing up my parents coerced me to play a winter and summer sport every year in the hopes, I imagine, that I wouldn't turn out to be a huge nerd (oops). Once 8th grade came around I learned that marching band was considered a sport and never looked back. Throughout high school, I calculated, it was common for me to spend 20 hours a week rehearsing or performing with my trumpet in various school and personal bands. For a long time I planned on becoming a professional trumpet player on Broadway, playing in the pit orchestras. My fondest college memories all relate to marching in the University of Minnesota Marching Band.</p>
<p>Aside from music, technology was the one other thing growing up that I really stuck to. I was commonly asked to help troubleshoot computer problems for my teachers and found myself always wanting to be a "hacker", even though I had absolutely no clue what that was. Over time my personal aspirations, and lack of want to be a starving musician, drove me to choose a CS degree and solidify my place as a nerd, sorry mom.</p>
<h1>Work</h1>
<h2>My API</h2>
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<td style="height: 19.5938px; border-width: 1px;"><span style="color: rgb(126, 140, 141);">Priority / Method</span></td>
<td style="height: 19.5938px; border-width: 1px;"><span style="color: rgb(126, 140, 141);">Notes</span></td>
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<td style="height: 39.1875px; border-width: 1px;"><span class="badge" style="background-color: #fef2f2; color: #991b1b;">Urgent</span> | <strong>Text, unless it's the apocalypse</strong></td>
<td style="height: 39.1875px; border-width: 1px;">I'm chronically online, so I'll likely notice anything you send me quickly</td>
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<td style="height: 39.6875px; border-width: 1px;"><span class="badge" style="background-color: #fefce8; color: #854d0e;">Time Sensitive</span>| <strong>Slack</strong></td>
<td style="height: 39.6875px; border-width: 1px;">Please refrain from using <code>@here</code> unless it's important</td>
</tr>
<tr style="height: 39.1875px;">
<td style="height: 39.1875px; border-width: 1px;"><span class="badge" style="background-color: #faf5ff; color: #6b21a8;">Low</span> | <strong>Email</strong></td>
<td style="height: 39.1875px; border-width: 1px;">I'm a big fan of inbox zero, so you can expect a response by EOD</td>
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<h2>Communication Preferences</h2>
<p>I find myself leaning very heavily towards asynchronous communication. As noted below, I can sometimes be a bit abrasive when in a situation I'm unhappy with, and prefer to take the time to step away from a conversation and think about it. I also hate meetings and find them to be 80% too long.</p>
<p>When given the choice:</p>
<ul>
<li>Always slack, never email</li>
<li>Zoom &gt; Teams</li>
<li>9 AM meetings 👍 ,&nbsp; 8 AM meetings 👎</li>
<li>Hybrid working environment</li>
</ul>
<h2>Work Style</h2>
<p>A mantra learned from my girlfriend and dog describes my work preferences best, <em><strong>"Fuck around and find out."</strong></em> I believe in rapid prototyping and innovation. If something breaks, you fix it and move on. This is likely a reason why I don't work in the medical field. However, special care is always given to production environments and data.</p>
<p>When working with me you'll notice I prefer to get to an MVP as fast as possible, requirements be damned. I'm a tactile learner and until I can really interact with something it's hard for me to ideate and give feedback. This can sometimes result in wasted effort unfortunately and is something I'm trying to find a good balance on.</p>
<p>I'm always open to critiques of my personality and character and try to be very receptive of them. Although critiques of my code and products are a bit harder for me to swallow, so call me out if you think I'm being hard headed about something.</p>
<h1>Strengths</h1>
<p>My non-engineering strengths are few but focused:</p>
<ol>
<li>I always try to think about the impact my actions will have on others. You'll commonly find me editing slack messages continuously after sending them, making small tweaks so my message doesn't come off as rude or impolite. That's not to excuse myself from the sometimes intentionally rude messages I send (re: <strong>Flaws</strong> below).</li>
<li>I am always happy to take lead on solving a fun problem and take great pride in my attention to detail and level of quality I hold myself to.</li>
<li>Having been the awkward guy at plenty of parties, I will usually try to find people that might be left out in situations and try to include them.</li>
</ol>
<h1>Flaws</h1>
<p>My flaws are always something I try to keep a strong understanding of:</p>
<ol>
<li>I can find myself being ruder than I would like when frustrated, upset, or interrupted.</li>
<li>When given a problem that I don't find inspiring or challenging, I can struggle to focus and attack it with the same ferocity I do exciting, new problems.</li>
<li>I focus on work too much and can let my personal life suffer because of this. I'm now trying to find a way to take 2 walks a day and only work during my most productive hours.</li>
</ol>
<h1>The Future</h1>
<p>The future is a scary prospect for me. I have a high belief in my ability to succeed when putting my mind to something, but I know there is a limit to it. I find myself switching between 2 mindsets about the future. 1) "Grind it out", get lucky, and retire by 35. Ideally taking the extra time to sail around the world. 2) Work within my limits, find more time to enjoy friends and family, and don't worry so much about 20 years down the road. I don't imagine I'll ever choose between the 2 and continue flip flopping depending on the season and my career prospects.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>

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