I believe the best engineers have rich lives outside of code. These are the things that keep me sharp, grounded, and curious. Some I've done since childhood. Some found me later. All of them teach me something I bring back to the work.
Started training before I started school. Decades of practice in discipline, focus, and the art of controlled intensity. The parallels to engineering are uncanny -- pattern recognition, timing, and knowing when not to act.
Ten thousand exits from perfectly good airplanes. Freefall teaches you about risk management, checklists, and the absolute necessity of preparation. Also: perspective. Everything looks different from 14,000 feet.
10K+ JUMPSTwo wheels, open road, full attention. Riding demands the same kind of present-moment awareness that debugging a production issue does -- except with better scenery and no Slack messages.
Building physical things is the antidote to building digital things. Wood doesn't have an undo button. It teaches patience, measurement, and the satisfaction of something you can hold in your hands.
The study and appreciation of timekeeping. Mechanical watches are tiny, precise engineering marvels -- hundreds of parts working in concert. It's architecture at a miniature scale, and it never gets old.
Mixing tracks is about reading a room, managing energy, and transitions. Music production is debugging for the ears. Both require deep listening and a willingness to experiment until something clicks.
Interested in any of these? Let's talk. Contact page has the details.