Theodore Roosevelt

Me

Hobbies:

Dungeons and Dragons (loud and proud!), Documentaries (anything by Adam Curtis), Music Production (DJ-ed for a while), Podcasts (check out Tanis), Hiking, Writing (of course), Learning (just attended ATD21 Conference!), Being a great dad.

One day, when I was about seven or eight years old, I came home from school and a huge box was sitting outside our door. It was heavy. I had to push it inside. Later, I asked my mother what was inside and she opened the box in front of me.

Inside the box was a huge collection of dark blue books. The binding had golden and silver authoritative lettering. It said, "New Book of Knowledge." It was an encyclopedia set. I picked up the book labeled "A" on its binding. I felt like I was holding some magical tome. the rest of the storied history. At that moment I fell in love with knowledge and learning.

That encyclopedia set was a window into all aspects of our world and beyond. In my mind, I could travel from our New Jersey apartment to the Tower of Pisa ... or the Voyager spacecraft at the edges of our solar system ... or the minute world of plankton.

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From then on, I was a voracious reader. I read that whole encyclopedia set back to front, drawing strange ideas from my imagination onto the pages. It led me to want to learn more. If I could, I wanted to learn everything!

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Before you know it, I had a library card and would spend my after-school hours tucked in a corner trying to digest books bigger than my head.

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That encyclopedia set off a chain of events that led me to my degree in English and eventually to my craft of trying to help others learn about our world and beyond, in whatever form.

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I describe myself as a storyteller and explorer of systems. I love the interconnectivity of things and how they come together to form something bigger. Then those bigger things make something even larger.

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The systems of technology and how they interface with systems of people - organizations - fascinate me. Being able to share what I have discovered in a way that lights up the eyes of a learner is icing on the cake.

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How you convey the information is just as important. I strongly believe our minds are entranced by a good story. Stories help us understand things on a deeper level. That is my goal these days: how can we take otherwise dry material and create a story that gives the learner or reader what they need, but leaves them enlightened ... maybe wanting more. Trust me, I know that is a tall order for technical writing and may not always be possible. But hey ... you never know right?

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