CURRENT MISSION

Eliminate planning from my life entirely.

PHILOSOPHY

My personal philosophy is a rather haphazard collection of ideas, both borrowed and personally synthesized. Words fail to describe how strongly I resonate with Isidore of Seville's words, "Learn as if you would live forever. Live as if you would die tomorrow."

I believe that everyone should be as adaptable, scalable, and generous as they can be. I take it upon myself to spread this idea only by actions... and words if someone specifically asks me.

I believe that the value of a person's life is defined by their net effect on the world around them. Thus I live my life productively, so that eventually I might be able to look on my life and say "yes, I have been a net positive influence on the people I care about and the world at large". This means repaying my financial, social, and emotional debts and then continuing to be productive. I also believe that people should solve problems and act productively on progressively larger scales starting at the personal level.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

Right now I'm a donor and I have an inflatable bed for someone to surf if they'd like to. Soon enough I will be doing some surfing of my own.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Consistently great. One of my very few requirements either as a guest or as a host is at least some travel story swapping.

Before I heard of this site I did have one couch-surfing-esque experience when I moved out here to California. I was returning from the city and caught the last train (which means I missed my connecting train and was stranded at a train station at 1am in a state I'd only lived in for three days). After a minute or two these two girls walked up and sat down to wait for the same train (that wasn't coming). I walked over as non-creepily as I could given the circumstances and asked if they knew about some train that didn't appear on the schedule or if they were in the same boat I was.

"Muffin?" was the reply I got in a thick Russian accent as one girl held out a box containing one last muffin. I gladly accepted and sat down to explain to these now-obviously-travellers that I didn't think the train was coming and to ask if there was a hotel nearby.

"No train? Then we sleep in park, will you join us?" At this point I really didn't know what to do, the directness, logic and innocence of her proposal caught me completely off guard. Long story short the park didn't work out but we did eventually find a cab to drive us back to my apartment where I surfed on my own couch so that the girls could share the queen-size bed in the next room.

After that the three of us became remarkably good friends and went on several adventures together over the following weeks (until eventually they had to return to Moscow). It was a fantastic (if a bit unbelievable, even now) experience.

Interests

I like technology, philosophy, volleyball, curling, go, collecting and wearing hats, motorcycles, robotics, and perhaps not surprisingly: travel!

• writing
• working out
• motorcycles
• boating
• technology
• traveling
• surfing
• boxing
• volleyball
• logic

Music, Movies, and Books

I like to read science fiction and philosophy, also pop-sci and pop-math texts.

As for music I like non-lyrical trance while I'm working, and pretty much anything but country-western the rest of the time. Even Steve Reich and similarly out-there people find their way onto my playlists from time to time.

On the movies front I tend to prefer very complex stories, of course, there are lots of counter examples to this rule, but c'est la vie.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Stargazing all night during a 3-per-second meteor shower.

Teach, Learn, Share

I'm good at many things: computers, handyman-stuff, resume writing, playing with legos, and debate, to name a few. I'm happy to teach anything that I can.

I'm also happy to learn anything (within reason, for example I have no desire to learn birthing techniques, or to speak to ghosts, etc). If you know a lot about something lay it on me!

Countries I’ve Visited

Brazil, France, Ireland, Japan, New Zealand, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

United States

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