I’m a 27-year-old man who enjoys travel, dining, and programming. I live in Shanghai, China where I recently dove into the thrillingly unconventional life available here to willing expats. What I love is working and traveling, both independently and combined. I tried out the extreme combination of the two known as digital nomading back in 2021. I loved it, but I’ve grown to appreciate the utility of a semi-permanent home base. Back then I was calling it a search for the best place to live, and I concluded my search in Fort Collins where I stayed for the better part of three years. That was also when I reconnected with, started dating and eventually married an old friend from high school. Living in China had been on my radar since I first visited in 2019, so when the opportunity to move here presented itself we decided to take the plunge.
Early life
I had a pretty normal upbringing in the New England region of The United States where I went to school and played sports. I had no idea what to do with a life back then and don’t think I even understood I would have to do something with mine. I went to college in New Hampshire which felt a world away from my hometown in Connecticut. I realized the real world was around the corner just before turning 21 in the summer following my junior year. I read Rich Dad Poor Dad that summer and got pretty pumped about adulthood while simultaneously denying its legitimacy. During graduation, as all my peers were posting on Instagram about entering “the real world” I was commenting “There is no real world”. I don’t know what I thought was going to happen next, but I still refer to that as the time as when I “came online”.
Reformed business student
I studied business in college. Didn’t even know what that meant when I signed up. The business school at my university was nice, so I just went with it. I quickly realized I had no interest in becoming a salesman, accountant, or financial professional. Then I took a class where we built a website for the final project, and the rest is history. I finished business school and did fine but focused most of my education on technology. The real joke is now that I built a career on technical skills I study business in my free time.
Professional?
I still do not know what I want to be when I grow up. I’m fine with that and still live every day pretty grateful I woke the heck up that last summer of college. I don’t want to attribute it to a cliche book like Rich Dad Poor Dad, but something changed in me that year. It probably wouldn’t have the same effect if I reread it now. My first years of young professional life taught me a lot about what I did and didn’t want, and now, four and a half years after graduation, I continue to wonder what those things are and be critical of what I think they are.
Interests
I am fascinated by economies and how humans use their creativity to keep this civilized game going. One of the most amazing business tools that I’m endlessly interested in is the Internet. The very reason we’re talking right now. The fact that you’re accessing this website over a wire that any computer in the world can connect to is beyond me. I’m in awe just thinking about it, and those are the things I love most. When I look at New York City and think about how a bunch of people built that while they were going about their lives a couple hundred years ago, I’m just in awe. How the heck did they pull that off? I also like cooking.
My ideal vacation?
I love Asia. I’ve only been to a few countries, but the contrast between Eastern and Western cultures is amazing to me. As an American, traveling to an Asian country is shocking to me. I like that. I don’t like beaches or any of the mainstream excuses to party that masquerade as urban tourism. I actually don’t even really like sightseeing. I just like getting to know a new city no matter how big or small. I always make a lot of time to not have plans and just wander with my head up and eyes open. Sometimes even the least impressive new places can be marvelous in unique ways.
Anything else?
I think that’s enough. I like reflecting in public, but there’s usually more of a point to it. I always try to convey what I learned from whatever experience I describe in my blog posts. Well, I hope you learned something about me here. If you want to keep up with me, everything I’m doing can be found on this website. If you want to know what I’m doing now, check out my “now” page. I don’t use social media much, but will occasionally tweet something I think is neat. Even Twitter, I don’t check weekly or even monthly. If you want to get ahold of me, email me. Otherwise, I hope to see you out there.