I've had a few careers, and they have more in common than they look.

I started as a research glaciologist — NASA- and NOAA-funded fieldwork on the ice of Greenland, the Peruvian Andes, the Rockies, and the Alps — and spent years as a professor building university science programs from the ground up. In 2013 I moved into technology, leading teams as a Principal Engineer, CTO, and co-founder of Boca Code, a South Florida coding bootcamp. Today I'm VP of Engineering at CYPHER Learning, where my team builds an AI-powered learning platform used by roughly two million people.

The thread through all of it is the same: chase the evidence, then build something that lasts.

Recently that instinct turned inward. Out of the Fish Tank is my latest book — the true story of my ancestor Chaim "Hyman" Zeidler, a Galician Jew who survived First World War captivity, lived under a string of assumed identities, and remade himself in Brooklyn. I rebuilt his life from family recordings, oral histories, and archival records that nearly didn't survive.

I write here about the craft of building, engineering leadership, and the stories I can't stop digging up. If that's your thing, follow along.