MY WHY

Some things about me:​

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• Have lived on 6 continents across 8 countries. Change is my comfort zone.

• Was booted from school three separate times, beginning at age 8. 

  • led my third grade class into a breaking and entering mission ​

  • broke into the boys' dorms because I disagreed with the arbitrary separation

  • hacked into the principal's email to steal exam answers, and then sold them 

• Received an award for academic excellence. not for attending class, but for skipping it efficiently. I built a note-sharing platform, acting as the intermediary between students and coursework, which the school later purchased from me—proving that sometimes, disrupting the system is the best way to master it.

• Currently testing ultraprocessed foods for chemicals to pursue the largest class action lawsuits in history and do a Big Tobacco to Big Food

• Based between Austin (to commune with fellow boundary breakers), NYC (where I and doing my PhD), Costa Rica (to build a regenerative ecosystem), and Ibiza (to let my hair down)

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What I believe:

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• High Agency is Everything 

  • If something needs fixing, I don’t wait for permission—I just do it (this also gets me in trouble a lot...)

  • Efficiency over perfection.

• Black Sheep, but a Master of Assimilation  

  • I don’t really fit in anywhere, but I can assimilate everywhere.

  • I'm as comfortable sleeping in the desert as I am consorting with Presidents and Kings.

• Pattern Recognizer

  • I have a photographic memory for space. 

  • Read maps with a narcotic tingle of possibility. 

  • Have a sonar-type sense for people's subtle cues.

• Fixer 

  • I find wicked problems irresistible.

  • I thrive in uncertainty​ (albeit, I get a bit bored in routine...).

  • I believe that a problem fully understood is half solved; and that a problem partially understood can never be solved.

• First Principles Over Assumptions

  • If something is possible, there must be a way.

  • I believe in a beginner's mindset over entrenched experts to solve sticky problems.

• ​Strong Views, Loosely Held (thanks Marc)

  • I believe it's important to argue passionately, but not to identify with beliefs. Data changes, and so should your opinions.

  • Nuance; the world isn’t binary, and neither is truth. In fact, there isn't really such thing as objective truth, if we're being really honest.

  • I practice cognitive flexibility.

• Challenging Perspectives 

• • Society would benefit from far more Jeffersonian-style dinners.

  • Diversity = resilience in all natural systems.

  • The best way to learn is to steel-man your opposition.

• Curiosity is our Greatest Weapon

  • ​Asking better questions is how we build better systems.

  • Modern education produces risk-averse, conformity-driven individuals who excel at following rules. Steer clear at all costs.

  • We need to train the next generation for intellectual curiosity, independence, and the courage to think differently.

• Architect Your Life, Don’t Default into One

  • Don't subscribe to the deferred life plan—the idea that you grind now to “live” later.

  • Design a life you don't have to recover from.

  • True success comes from breaking free of social conditioning.​

 

My life principles:

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Inspired by Benjamin Franklin's famous 13 life principles (his philosophy was essentially: "master yourself, and you can master anything") combined with my studies on Stoicism, I’ve developed my own set of guiding principles, shaped by experience, curiosity, and a relentless pursuit of growth. These are not rigid rules, but a compass for living with intention—a reminder to stay true, stay open, and stay evolving.​​​

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1. Trust Your Inner Knowing – Intuition whispers; stay attuned.

2. Forge Your Own Path – Don’t follow the script; write your own.  

3. Stay Insatiably Curious – Ask, explore, challenge—the rebel's way.

4. Believe in Magic – The world is more enchanting than we allow ourselves to see.

5. Evolve Relentlessly – Growth is life’s greatest adventure—keep moving forward.

6. Lead with Kindness – Warmth is strength. Diplomacy is courage. Be both.

7. Listen Deeply – People don’t just need to be heard; they need to be understood.

8. Bring Value – Competence isn’t about titles—it’s about showing up, solving problems, and making things better.

9. Stay Humble – Everyone you meet knows something you don’t. Stay open. Stay teachable.

10. Honor Your Word – Integrity is what you do when no one is watching. Let your actions be your proof.

11. Master Equanimity— Control what you can, accept what you can’t, and find peace in the difference. 

12. Respect Your Body – Treat your body like the temple she is. She’s your only home.

13. Ritual – Ceremony isn’t just for the sacred. Find grace in the mundane.

14. Life Offensively – don't wait for things to break, rethink the rules, and love fiercely.

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​A few of my favorite heuristics:​

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The Great Filter – Why Societies Collapse

...civilizations fail when they become too comfortable to solve existential risks. A society that prioritizes ideological purity over competence, or feeling good over hard truths, loses its ability to sustain itself. This may explain why we see declining institutional trust, economic stagnation, and political fragmentation in the modern West.​

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Moloch’s Trap – The Incentive Structures That Make Everything Worse

...Moloch represents self-reinforcing systems that create suboptimal outcomes for everyone. In public health, food companies optimize for profit, not nutrition, and in media, outrage gets more engagement than nuance. The recent "woke" ideology exemplifies a Molochian trap—social and political incentives push individuals and institutions to signal virtue, even at the cost of logic, truth, or societal cohesion.

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The Backfire Effect – Why We Defend Beliefs Even When They’re Proven Wrong

...Humans suffer from motivated reasoning, meaning we don’t just hold beliefs—we anchor our identities to them. When confronted with evidence that contradicts our worldview, instead of reconsidering, we double down. This is why debating someone rarely changes their mind—you’re not just challenging an opinion, you’re challenging their self-concept.

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Gell-Mann Amnesia – Why Experts Get One Thing Right and Another So Wrong

...how we recognize media inaccuracies in areas we understand, but assume it’s correct in areas we don’t. This explains why public trust in science, health, and journalism is deteriorating—once you see corporate bias, misinformation, or incompetence in one domain, you start questioning everything.