Hi! Nice to meet you, I'm Max.

I have wanderlust, and am proud of it. I love to read. I'm fascinated by big ideas and the people who believe that they are achievable. I'm all about living life with passion, authenticity and a sense of adventure. I love people who are honest, open, confident, creative and ticklish.

I love grooving to music of all kinds. I like making things, with my hands, with words, with code. I like listening to other people's stories and telling my own.

My earliest memory was lying in the aisle of an airplane, looking at the overhead compartments, so I guess Travel has always been in my blood. I loved that moment right before takeoff when the plane turns on its thrusters with a thunderous roar and you and the seat temporarily becomes one. I've heard that roar a lot, having spent about half my life on either side of the Pacific Ocean, attended four different high schools during the four years of high school :)

In the last 4 years, I've :
- worked at NASA (ask me about astroids and bioengineering),
- hustled as a Teaching Fellow at Singularity University (think Professor's X Academy for the Gifted, except everyone's superpower is being incredibly smart and entrepreneurial)
- started an entrepreneurship society at Brown University
- traveled to Moscow on behest of the Russian government
- spoke at the White House
- dropped out of college
- gone to Burning Man (x2)
- convince a company to hire me as their youngest data scientist
- started writing a book (** still in progress)
- founded a co-op house called Alexandria (yes, its named after that Egyptian city with the library)

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

Someone once said: the autobiography of a nation is written in 3 books: the book of its deeds, the book of its words, and book of its art.

To that, I'd like to add, the book of late night conversations in the living rooms of its people.

Since my early days of high school relocations, I've really enjoyed meeting new people, and learning from them in ways that can never be found in museums or galleries. Discovering and building a close personal connection, that is the marrow of life for me, and I hope to bring .

This current trip I'm on, I'm traveling through London, Paris, Warsaw, Berlin, Amsterdam, Beijing! After I get back home, I'll be hosting people in Palo Alto at my place in Alexandria :)

Interests

Data Science - software is eating the world and pooping data out. I separate the wheat of useful wisdom from the chaff.
Programming + CS - coding is the act of making real stuff from thought stuff.
Yoga - sounds cliche, but yoga changed my life. I've learned a sense of appreciation and control of my body that always delight me with new surprises.
Meditation - calmness comes from within.
Reading - BOOKS are amazing.
Culture + History - they are the greatest stories on earth
Experience design and creation - hosted a dining in the dark experience with friends recently.
Swimming - I recently discovered I could swim 3k.
Community Building
Dancing - Used to do salsa. Occasional c-walker.

• arts
• culture
• writing
• books
• design
• dancing
• dining
• yoga
• meditation
• reading
• traveling
• coding
• music
• guitar
• hunting
• rock climbing
• swimming
• teaching
• engineering
• entrepreneurship
• history
• science
• software
• urban exploration

Music, Movies, and Books

Post-modern, existentialist literature + good science fiction occupy a special place in my heart.

The Brothers Karamazov. The Myth of Sisyphus. Crime and Punishment. The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Infinite Jest. Slaughterhouse five. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The Foundation Trilogy (Asimov). Diamond Age (Neal Stephenson). Neuromancer.

Jack Kerouac's On the Road really struck a chord in about travel - that its just as about finding out about yourself as it is about learning about the world.

A good film is a life experience: I love films and documentaries that throw me off guard, that open me up, that makes me think and plays an orchestra on my emotions:

V for Vendetta ; The Matrix ;
Primer ; Shutter Island ; Memento ; Interstellar (oh baby!) ;
Gravity; Lucy ; The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind ; Inception ;
Little Miss Sunshine ; Brooklyn Castle ; Particle Fever ;

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Stumbling across a live jam session in the forgotten underground catacombs of paris - candlelit - and punctuated by live guitar.

Other exceptional memories:
- spending the first night in our new co-op house (just me, an airmattress, and ghostly creaks of an empty house) after a frantic month of house-hunting, logistics, contract negotiations,
- eating mysterious foods in a hidden, pitch-black cave on the side of a mountain next to Stanford
- accelerating at 9.8 m/s/s towards the ground after leaping out of an airplane at 13,000 feet.
- climbing a 70 ft high electric tower with nothing but bare metal rungs and my hands. Talk about taking your life in your hands, literally.

Teach, Learn, Share

I love reading, and am always up for new conversations. Have some hilarious and thought provoking stories to share.

Specifically - how we are engineering biological organisms. what big data is all about. taking risks and living a life of your own design self. Urban exploration in NYC, London, Paris. (and hopefully soon - Berlin + Amsterdam :)

What I Can Share with Hosts

crazy travel stories, interesting conversations, books and ideas
a brimming sense of curiosity
my friends that they should meet around the world

Countries I’ve Visited

China, France, Italy, Mexico, Poland, Singapore, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

China, United Kingdom, United States