This is the kind of nonsense I get up to when I'm trying to understand how things work, and being the first-person observer to this unhinged behavior, I also spend a lot of time thinking about what motivates us (especially me, in this case).

As a teenager, I spent 3 years studying marine engineering before discovering the book Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert. It was the first time I encountered the systematic study of human behavior, and that fascinated me. I eventually earned a PhD in Social Psychology from NYU. In my short-lived career as an academic psychologist, I was interested in how people pursue their goals, and I wanted to share that knowledge to make people's lives better. But it was the height of the replication crisis in psychology, and I remember my lab-mate John, walking into the lab with a printed copy (back when we still did those) of Psychological Science, asking, with a huge grin on his face: "How many of these studies do you think will replicate?"

I eventually realized that while there were many things I loved about academia - the autonomy, focus, and community of passionate people - it ultimately didn't matter how much I loved academia, if it didn't love me back. I needed to pursue what actually worked (vs. what was publishable), and far from enjoying the politics of academia, I found that the most satisfying moments in my grad school career came from being a mentor to my research assistants. In particular, the real stuff: Playing therapist to a drunk and crying college kid at 2am, and then attending their wedding 10 years later.

After many side quests - science journalism classes, data science projects, and a bunch of hackathons - I found myself in Product, where I enjoy connecting deeply with others to find out what works and how it works. And now, a little older, I care a lot more about why we're doing all of this.

I'm currently the Head of Product at Dataro, where we build products to help nonprofits fundraise better. I lead a small product team that's passionate about making a positive impact on the people around us, helping each other to grow, and building relationships that last beyond our time together.

My unprofessional life is spent hunting down hobbies that I enjoy the subjective feeling of, surround me with a community that I care about, and help me create healthy habits. Some of my favorite memories include:

• Renting an RV with 3 other friends, spending the week camping wherever we wanted, then running a 50K race with 27 other people along the Denali Highway.
• Riding up to Inverness/Point Reyes in Marin, surviving on "dinner" from the only convenience store in town (Doritos and ice cream), spending the night in a converted trailer, only to discover the next day that the place had a chicken coop and there were actually freshly laid eggs in the fridge.
• Picking up a tennis racket for the first time in 20 years and feeling the muscle memory come rushing back.
• Putting on a show for 50 strangers with my friend Ambi, where I got to play a bunch of original songs for the first time.

On my deathbed, I don't want to reflect on a life - personal or professional - that's the equivalent of waiting 2 hours in line for Michelin Star ramen that tastes like ramen. If you also care about the big stuff, enjoy letting go of the small stuff, and want to go where the crowds aren't, let's connect.