An Introduction

My name is Dave. I am learning things, and I decided to do it in public with a friend. I have known Chris for a long time, and I am excited to record what we learn together. I plan on writing about programming, technology, and mathematics. I live in Pittsburgh with my dog, Joe.

I am a lifelong learner. I’m always picking up new things and trying to figure them out. I am not normally aiming for any kind of mastery, as much as a comfortable familiarity. I have always been an amateur and I love doing things that I love for their own sake.

I have a background in liberal arts. I got my bachelor’s degree from St. John’s College in Annapolis MD. It is a “Great Books School”. There is only one undergraduate curriculum. We studied Philosophy, literature, language, and the history and philosophy of math and science. We focused on primary texts in Western thought in a professor guided but student led group discussion setting.

I am an analyst by training. I received a Master’s in Public Policy from University of Maryland in College Park. My focus was on non-profit management, but I also studied public management, leadership, ethics, negotiation, strategic planning, and performance evaluation, and other modes of analysis.

I am a mission driven person. I have spent the last four years in different roles supporting and running a free STEM afterschool program for middle school students here in Pittsburgh PA. We focus on maintaining a low barrier to entry, so we are accessible to the youth who need our programming the most; trauma informed care, which mostly means we focus on relationships with youth and their families as individuals and try to address their needs without making assumptions about what they are going through; and engaging STEM programming, which for us means a lot of hands-on, open ended, problem based, context rich, narrative rooted, and energetic activities.

I am in transition professionally. I am about to start a JAVA programming boot camp where I will learn the fundamental tools to become a full stack developer. I’m very excited to wrap my head around these tools, because I believe there is a lot of good to do in the world right now with this skill set. As a generalist it’s always an exciting prospect to develop a concrete skill that is easy to explain, but these skills in particular seem like they can multiply your effort, and give you access to a new world of tools to create impact for people and communities. I have dabbled in these skills as an amateur for years, but now I plan on mastering some of them.

That’s me.