The rest of this blog is dedicated to exploring ideas. This page is about the human behind them.

My professional life is about building better tools, but my personal life is about exploration and connection. My wife and I often attend classical music, theater, and dance performances in our home city of Cape Town. There's a unique magic in the performing arts that technology can't quite replicate.

I have a deep love for getting off the beaten path. I enjoy taking long drives, just to watch the landscape change, and I'm a firm believer in turning left where I usually turn right, just to see what happens. On one such detour, a quest for a geocache led us to an old cast-iron bridge in the middle of nowhere, a forgotten piece of history with a fascinating story. It’s a perfect metaphor for my approach to life: the most interesting things are often just beyond the edge of the map.

This curiosity extends to how I learn. I taught myself to sketch, because I believe any skill is learnable with patience. When I became fascinated with the history of the Western Cape, I didn't just read about it. I went to the places, stood on the ground, and read the memorials. I find that telling the stories of what I've learned to others is the best way to forge new questions and deeper understanding. It’s how you find all the colors of the rainbow in a subject.

But the most profound influences are the closest ones. My wife has made my life infinitely richer. And through her, I discovered, sadly late in life, that I am very much a dog person. For the past eight years, my labrador, Lekkerbek, has been a constant teacher. She has shown me the true meaning of a contented sigh, the importance of being present, and has given me a deeper understanding of the nature of self.

Connect with Me

You can find me on LinkedIn.